First patient of Elon Musk's Neuralink implant suffered life-threatening ... trends now
Neuralink's first human trial nearly came to an end after the patients endured a potentially life-threatening condition shortly after the implantation surgery.
A new report has claimed that air became trapped inside Nolan Arbaugh's skull during the operation, a condition known as pneumocephalus that can cause seizures, brain abscess and death if untreated.
The incident reportedly raised concerns among staff who discussed removing the brain implant entirely - but the issue does not appear to be impacting Arbaugh's health.
However, it may have caused the brain chip to malfunction, which Neuralink said Wednesday happened when some of the 64 threads that attach the chip to the brain retracted - resulting in a decrease in the number of effective nodes.
Neuralink's first human trial nearly came to an end after the patients endured a potentially life-threatening condition shortly after the implantation surgery. Nolan Arbaugh received the brain chip more than 100 days ago
Arbaugh suffered a life-changing driving accident whilst working as a camp counselor in 2016, which left him with 'absolutely no feeling' from the shoulders down.
His life changed again on January 28 when he underwent a 30-minute procedure that used a 'sewing machine-like' robot to remove a small chunk of his skull and stitch the chip into his brain.
And Arbaugh has surpassed 100 days of living with the Nueralink chip called Link.
However, The Wall Street Journal has claimed that Musk's company may not have been completely open about the process.
Sources told The Journal that Arbaugh suffered the condition during surgery, which led to the implant potentially being removed.
The incident reportedly raised concerns among staff who discussed removing the brain implant entirely - but the issue does not appear to be impacting Arbaugh's health
In a progress update, Neuralink mentioned that some of the threads attached to the chip had retracted from the brain, but the team modified the recording algorithm to be more sensitive to neural population signals.
This resulted in 'improved the techniques to translate these signals into cursor movements, and enhanced the user interface,' reads Neuralink's announcement.
The company was said to be in contact with the Food and Drug Administration about the incident, reporting that the problem had been fixed - a move to ensure Neuralink's two upcoming patients can join the trial.
The company has 10 people in the pipeline for this year.
And while Arbaugh had trouble at the start, he has since being playing video games with friends, posting on X and digitally communicating with the world.
People familiar with the matter said they are still optimistic about the brain chip trials and the problems the technology could solve. Before receiving Link, Arbaugh could only use a mouth-held tablet stylus to operate a tablet - and his caregiver had to place it in his mouth.
Arbaugh can move a cursor around the screen using the remote brain chip in his
