A woman whose epilepsy was greatly improved by an experimental brain implant was devastated when she was forced to have it removed.

A woman whose epilepsy was greatly improved by an experimental brain implant was devastated when, just two years after getting it, she was forced to have it removed due to the company that made it going bankrupt.

As the MIT Technology Review reports, an Australian woman named Rita Leggett who received an experimental seizure-tracking brain-computer interface (BCI) implant from the now-defunct company Neuravista in 2010 has become a stark example not only of the ways neurotech can help people, but also of the trauma of losing access to them when experiments end or companies go under.

  • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    4 months ago

    I think the difference is likely that this is a trial. The woman likely didn’t pay for it, and they didn’t want her to because they don’t want anyone owning their tech while it’s being developed.

    • bizarroland@fedia.io
      4·
      4 months ago

      I mean yes but you also have to consider the face of it.

      This whole thing is basically them saying sorry, we didn’t make 800 million dollars so we’re going to cut your head open and throw away what we find in there.

    • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      4 months ago

      I don’t give a shit what the company wants or think it’s entitled to; the device was implanted inside a human body. That means the human it’s implanted in owns it, and fuck any psychopath who claims it could ever be otherwise!