Dr. Ajay Seth and his patient Melissa Loomis have made history together.
After a stunning injury and a resulting infection led to the loss of her arm, a medical journey of incredible skill and perseverance began. It led to the surgery that’s been called “the bionic miracle” – a history-making procedure allowing Melissa both to operate a prosthetic arm with her thoughts and to feel and sense with the prosthetic as though it were her real hand.
The science is incredible. But Dr. Seth says none of it would have happened without God’s guidance and goodness.
“God performed a miracle in a small town. I haven’t had one person read the book and say, ‘Those are coincidences.’ Everybody who’s read the book is like, ‘These are things we can’t explain how they happened, and you can only give credit to one person: God.’”
“As a physician, there are things I cannot answer. I’m human. I can tell you what I know. I can tell you what I think. But there is a lot of stuff in medicine where I can’t answer the question. I don’t know the answer. Sometimes people in medicine are fearful of giving credit where it should be given, and that’s to God.”
Dr. Seth still vividly remembers the promise that set this one-of-a-kind journey in motion. Melissa and her husband were researching potential prosthetics when they showed him a photo of what they were thinking.
“I remember looking at it, and it was this futuristic arm. I remember telling Melissa, ‘I promise you, I’m going to make you the most advanced amputee in the world.’
When I walked out of the room, I’m like, ‘Why do I do this stuff?!’ I’ll be honest. I didn’t even know the first thing then about prosthetics. There’s probably ten things that happened, and if even one of them didn’t happen, this would never have of occurred.”
Looking back on this incredible journey, the humble doctor says he’s more convinced than ever that God is in control.
“Sooner or later, you can’t say it’s a coincidence. I honestly felt like we were just on the train tracks. God had just taken us, and every time we would come to a mountain with no tunnel. Boom. He got it out of our way, and we kept on going.”
“I’m just a regular surgeon, and I really didn’t do anything that other surgeons couldn’t do. I mean, there’s thousands of people who could do what I did. I was just given the opportunity for some reason.”
Dr. Ajay Seth is the Ohio physician behind the groundbreaking surgery allowing his patient Melissa Loomis to control her prosthetic arm with her thoughts and feel with her prosthetic as with her real hand. The one of a kind story is retold in Rewired: An Unlikely Doctor, a Brave Amputee, and the Medical Miracle That Made History.
On the Road with Dr. Ajay Seth
