Woman Grows A New Ear...On Her Arm, Then Has It Attached to Her Head

After Removing It, Doctor Attaches It to her Head, Replacing Missing Ear

Seriously, this is pretty amazing. A woman who had to have most of her left ear removed due to cancer was able to regrow a new one thanks to an ingenious doctor and a little help from her own forearm.

In 2008, Sherrie Walters was diagnosed with a rare form of skin cancer that required the removal of the ear. But instead of getting fitted with a new, prosthetic one, she followed the suggestion of reconstructive surgeon Dr. Patrick Bynes of Johns Hopkins University. Taking cartilage from Walters' ribcage, he fashioned together a new ear, then implanted it in her arm so it could grow.

When it was at full size, he removed it then attached it to her head. After the swelling from the surgery goes down and a hearing aid is put in place, Bynes says it should function as closely as possible to a normal ear.

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These days, Walters is even able to laugh about her unusual experience. Her husband, Damian, says he used to talk to her arm asking, ‘Can you hear me? Can you hear me?'

Again, we think the story, while strange, is truly amazing and a hopeful sign of what medical science will be able to achieve on a regular basis in the future. Now if they could just get cracking' on the male birth control pill...