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'She Lost Her Sight. Her Billionaire Father Bet On a Daring New Treatment.' (msn.com) 118

Posted by EditorDavid from the not-giving-up dept.
"Billionaire Bill Ackman's life was upended this February when his 26-year-old daughter collapsed in her Brooklyn apartment, suffering a brain hemorrhage that would render her unable to move, speak or see," writes the Washingon Post. But then... The hedge fund manager did what any good father would do — at least, any father with vast financial resources and what friends describe as a "Mr. Fix-It" tendency. He sprung into action, getting her topline care at New York City's Mt. Sinai Hospital and consulting a network of well-connected friends all over the world. He helped her access a novel cell therapy that has been gaining traction among longevity enthusiasts, who are seeking ways to prolong human life. And then — motivated by a newfound desire to accelerate scientific research — he vowed to spend more than $400 million to launch an institute dedicated to longevity and brain health... He posted this week that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in May, gave his daughter Lucy's medical team a first-time emergency authorization to transplant mitochondria — the energy-producing part of human cells — from her leg muscle to her eyes, in the hopes that the tiny cell powerhouses would facilitate healing in her optic nerves and perhaps even restore her vision.

Ackman's story highlights the increasingly prominent role of the ultra-wealthy in making expensive medical bets on longevity treatments and other novel therapies, altering the direction of research as federal funding for science declines in the second Trump administration. But his saga is a deeply personal one, spurred by his daughter's medical crisis. The focus on longevity by Ackman, who made billions on Wall Street as a hedge fund manager, is aligned with similarly ambitious efforts from some of Silicon Valley's biggest names. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has backed Retro Biosciences, a start-up whose goal is to add 10 healthy years to the human lifespan through cellular reprogramming. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is reportedly a funder of Altos Labs, which focuses on cellular rejuvenation and resilience... Billionaire investor Peter Thiel, Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison are also deeply invested in life-extension methods and attempts to rewrite the biology of aging...

The therapy given to Ackman's daughter Lucy, known as mitochondrial transplantation, is of great interest not only to people who have suffered injuries, but to longevity-focused scientists who believe that mitochondria may hold promise for reversing some of the effects of aging... In recent years, scientists have discovered that mitochondria have many other functions beyond converting food into energy. They serve as clearinghouses for damaged cells, opening up the possibility that they can help with cell regeneration and healing, said Daria Mochly-Rosen, professor of chemical and systems biology at the Stanford University School of Medicine and co-author of " The Life Machines: How Taking Care of Your Mitochondria Can Transform Your Health."

"I am one of those who believes that focusing on mitochondrial health is a way to address many human diseases, including aging itself," she said. "It's exciting."

'She Lost Her Sight. Her Billionaire Father Bet On a Daring New Treatment.' More | Reply

'She Lost Her Sight. Her Billionaire Father Bet On a Daring New Treatment.'

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  • Had not just spent the last 100 years holding back human civilization and development and if I want to go back further 2 millennia doing the same so that they could hold on the money and power then we would be way more advanced and this would not have been an issue.

    Some people will make the point that the 1% "only" have 20 trillion dollars to their name. Why that's not even enough to pay off the American national debt right?

    That completely ignores how they retard society and the economy.

    Good exa

    • Re:It's he and other people like him (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ObliviousGnat ( 6346278 ) on Monday September 07, 2026 @11:11AM (#66327178)

      This article reads like pro-billionaire corporatist propaganda.

      It's unfortunate that progress often needs something personal for it to happen, like the politicians who openly opposed gay rights until their children came out.

      • We tried the patronage model. It was called the dark ages. Billionaires or the middle age equivalent that were more like trillionaires do not drive innovation they stifle it.

        That's not an accident. Innovation has the risk of overturning social order which would risk their position and wealth and status. So they intentionally retard human civilization and development in order to hold on the power and money.

        The dark ages were not in accident they were engineered. The wealthier trying to have their cak
        • The period known as the dark ages was largely due to Christianity not being interested in science or progress. When the highest calling is writing poems praising god instead of improving the condition of human living, civilization collapses. See the works of Richard Carrier.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        It does. My guess is somebody with more money than a good person can have has paid for it.

      • How much have YOU donated to charities that fund different kinds of research?

        Hypocrite.

    • Ooo its a paradox (Score:4, Interesting)

      by butt0nm4n ( 1736412 ) on Monday September 07, 2026 @11:12AM (#66327180)

      Should I be pleased she might get healed, yes, but only because capitalist pig rich daddy could help? I bet he has posters of Trump on his wall taking in it the backdoor from Putin looking buff in his judo suit.

      One meaningful end to the tale is it doesn't work, she remains blind and daddy learns a valuable lesson on the limits of money, seeks redemption from his selfish, greedy life and sets up a charitable trust to fund research into fixing the makeup of helpless rich daddy girls.

      Another end, it does work, and other people benefit, but daddy licences the solution because he cant really help himself, he has always been greedy and it's $1M a pop.

      Or the procedure works, she can see again. Yay! Only problem is her eyes are on stalks like a snail. Daddy loves his beautiful girl.

      Why I cant just read the story as great, we're doing some research, is why wealth inequality is important to some and it starts revolutions. Why this guy has the funds to spend on pseudo science and new age batshit consultants to get daddy's girl peepers back there are families with no health insurance watching their kids die from cancer.

      • What should he have done? Go running to Medicaid? You would have done the same thing in his position.

        • Re:Ooo its a paradox (Score:4, Interesting)

          by jacks smirking reven ( 909048 ) on Monday September 07, 2026 @11:52AM (#66327220)

          That is nowhere near the point anyone is making including the person you are responding to.

          What I would say is Medicaid should be funded and universal enough that the amount of money your daddy has shouldnt matter whether someone daughter can get treatment, a position Ackman holds the opposite of.

          I can be glad his daughter found relief and still think Bill is a repugnant piece of human waste who deserves no empathy or gratitude because he has actively stripped medical care from other Americans and is glad that is happening.

          • I'll not opposed to making Medicaid universal, but have you ever been on Medicaid? It kind of sucks. It's basically like the single payer systems you guys keep asking for. Sure, it's free, but the providers that take it are high volume, there aren't enough doctors, the ones you get often aren't good, etc. Even in those countries, you're typically better off from private practice. And people with the most money or most severe need end up here anyway, usually somewhere like the Mayo clinic, MD Anderson, Sinai

            • Call it whatever you want, the merits of Medicare as it currently exists is not the point either, you think I would say Medicare as it currently exists is the idealized medical system I want?

              . It's basically like the single payer systems you guys keep asking for. Sure, it's free, but the providers that take it are high volume, there aren't enough doctors, the ones you get often aren't good,

              Ok, show me how much better the outcomes overall are here for the huge amounts of money we spend. Are our medical outcomes 2x better than Denmark or Finland or Sweden or France who spend about 1/2 what we do? Where the concept of medical bankruptcy just exists whereas it doesn't in most developed nations?

              The example o

              • Call it whatever you want, the merits of Medicare as it currently exists is not the point either, you think I would say Medicare as it currently exists is the idealized medical system I want?

                It doesn't matter whether it's idealized or not, it is what is being asked for. Full stop. You guys always have these bright ideas about how awesome socialism is, yet you have no idea how it actually works and why it always turns out the way it does. Hint: Nordic countries are not even the slightest bit socialist. They do a lot of welfare spending, but guess who does a lot more welfare spending and doesn't get an even remotely similar outcome? France.

                Half of you guys know what you're talking about when you

                • Re: Ooo its a paradox (Score:4, Informative)

                  by jacks smirking reven ( 909048 ) on Tuesday September 08, 2026 @08:11AM (#66328196)

                  Universal healthcare is socialism? You know you're the first person here to use that word here. 3 paragraphs attacking a phantom. Did you make a mess jerking yourself off so hard?

                  Then you say "healthcare systems only behaviour" without any consideration on how systems affect behavior. Even your own article concludes America has a number of disadvantages and yet again *we pay 2x the money*. Read the rest of the article.

                  No shit they pay less, *that's my point*. You can pay less if things cost less! You accuse me of not understanding and blaze over how these systems work. But hey you have an anecdote from a guy, that solves it!

                  I have to work so I can't explode this mess of bad faith nonsense any further but this response is a joke, sorry. You just brought out your jump to conclusions mat and went to town, called me a socialist and have zero idea how our own health system works much less any other. Good day sir.

            • I'll not opposed to making Medicaid universal ... but the providers that take it are high volume, there aren't enough doctors, the ones you get often aren't good, etc.

              For sure, these are problems. I think they're typical of any government program. First, someone says, "This is something that could benefit everyone, so we should make it available and fund it through taxes." But then people complain about paying taxes, and politicians come along who enthusiastically encourage the malcontents, and cut taxes, and the programs are underfunded. Then the next step is, "These programs aren't working. They should be privatized."

              Roads and bridges are other examples.

            • If Medicaid sucks, then fix it, muppet!

              If you don't know, your basic order of priorities are health, wealth, happiness. Law of surviving and thriving.

              Not just for you, your people, and you might like to believe you don't need them, but you do.

              Personally I'd like to jangle wealth into third place, if we are talking monetary wealth, but we gotta eat. I am working on that, might take me a few lifetimes.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by jsonn ( 792303 )
                But fixing Medicaid is antiamerican communism!!!

              • If Medicaid sucks, then fix it, muppet!

                It's basically the nature of the beast. Actually between medicaid/medicare and what Canada or the UK has, I'd choose medicare or medicaid any day of the week. There are some systems that work pretty well, like Austria and Switzerland, but they tend to be the exception rather than the rule.

                • Do you live in the UK?

                  NHS delivered my two children, gave me a heart bypass and rehabilitated me. Free. Paid for by everyone, everyone looks after each other. It's a beautiful thing, if you can see it.

                  My op was at a training hospital , so I helped train doctors and nurses too.

                  We have a lot of scared, greedy people here who don't and there is a lot of ignorance about personal responsibility and well being. That generates a lot of moaning and whining.

                  It's got problem's, main one being greed of suppliers and

                  • Do you live in the UK?

                    Nope, all I can speak about is based on what I've heard from actual doctors who have worked for NHS.

                    NHS delivered my two children, gave me a heart bypass and rehabilitated me. Free. Paid for by everyone, everyone looks after each other. It's a beautiful thing, if you can see it.

                    My op was at a training hospital , so I helped train doctors and nurses too.

                    This isn't anything you can't get from Medicaid, and for the same price. If you had paid attention to what I said, you'd note I specifically mentioned I'd choose Medicaid over your system. The reason for this is Medicaid will pay for anything that is medically necessary, where yours does let its budget get in the way of that. I say that because while I was at home recovering from surgery to correct a deviated

                    • Bit hostile aren't you? That stress is not good for you .

                      You have nothing to prove here mate. All good.

                    • Strawmen are annoying. What can I say?

                    • Land of the free, home of the brave.

                      Where nothing is free and no one brave enough to challenge the wealthy elite.

                      We have a similar situation in the UK, but we work indentured to mortgages or rent not health care.

                    • TANSTAAFL is a universal rule, though I think you don't understand the difference between libre and gratis.

                      And remember, the land you rent and mortgage legally belongs to your king. The only elites here are elected politicians, not your house of lords, commoner.

        • Yes I expect so. Having sight then having it taken away is a terrible fate. And I'd do anything, I hope, to save my kids, that feels like a natural law I must obey.

          Do you reckon this guy would run into a burning house to save his kids?

          I am not really feeling it. I'm feeling he could say fuck it, I can always have more kids. I can imagine he'd have the thought it would have been easier if she had died then I wouldn't have to watch her suffer, it's depressing to talk about with investors when they are pretend

      • The bot's incessant bullshit notwithstanding, it's not at all ironic that she could have fought off a 99.87% non-lethal illness entirely naturally.

        Stupidity is as stupidity does.

        • The bot's incessant bullshit notwithstanding, it's not at all ironic that she could have fought off a 99.87% non-lethal illness entirely naturally.

          What illness are you talking about? Keep in mind that not everyone is you, and we can't read your mind.

      • I absolutely bear ill will for people who want to hurt me. And billionaires want to hurt me.

        I am not cruel though. I do not want to see them hurt. I want to see them lose their power over me and their ability to hurt me.

        If you look through my comment history on any topic related to prison you will find me complaining about how we use prisons to torture people and that we should not do that under any circumstance. Even for the most heinous of crimes.

        I believe that scientific advancement will even

        • Hey mate, I want the girl to get healed too, of course I do. I am being antagonist a little. I come on here to sort my philosophy out, to bounce it off you. You helped. Thank you.

          • And you are right.

            Greed is at the centre of the Bhuddist wheel of suffering, driving it forward. Your comments on greed holding us back are very Bhuddist. Metta to you and her.

            • I guess our challenge, is to offer a story to those who find themselves wealthy. Do you want to be a king of hell?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by shanen ( 462549 )

      Pretty much as expected from you [rsilvergun] but if healthcare is just a business, then what else to expect? I think you're fishing around a lot and adding some complications, when the focus could be much simpler. It's like the old joke about "Why do you rob banks?"

      "Because that's where the money is!" [Gimme Funny!]

      We're moving to a new society of artificial scarcity for the many and most of the wealth highly concentrated, so of course the for-profit healthcare will go where the money is. The only reason t

  • Do we need to infect the children of the 1% (Score:5, Interesting)

    by gurps_npc ( 621217 ) on Monday September 07, 2026 @10:59AM (#66327162) Homepage

    Because if the only way we can get the money to cure diseases, then I wonder will this start to happen?

    Have a rare disease? Only hope is for you to and intentionally infect the son/daughter of the wealthy.

    The entire idea of taxes is to take the money from all - including the wealthy - and use it for the common good. We should NOT have to pray the wealthy becomes interested enough to do it on their own.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by PPH ( 736903 )

      The entire idea of taxes is to take the money from all - including the wealthy - and use it for the common good.

      A noble thought. But more often than not, that money taken goes to subsidize the lifestyles of those managing the revenue. Not much of Ackman's $400 million as tax revenue would have gotten down to the actual researchers. And today, that $400 million would have gone, in large part, to build missiles to defend Israel (one of Ackman's priorities). Instead, he diverted it directly to groups doing work that might benefit thousands of people as well as his daughter. Same thing happens with private charities.

      Som

      • Sometimes good comes out of selfishness. When covid hit, people would thank me for wearing a mask in their presence. I'd tell them, "I'm wearing this to protect myself. The rest of you can get f-ked."

        In this case, your selfishness just told others in your presence that you were a prick to be avoided. So, mission accomplished?

      • I'd tell them, "I'm wearing this to protect myself. The rest of you can get f-ked."

        The whole point of masks is to protect others, so they probably just think you are dumb.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by PPH ( 736903 )

          The whole point of masks is to protect others,

          Socialist propaganda to test people's willingness to comply with a directive for the good of the collective at their own expense. But it really doesn't matter, because if everyone wears a mask, everyone is protected. Whether it is to protect yourself or others is immaterial. Unless part of the point is to demonstrate altruism.

          And N95 masks are for _inhalation_ protection only. Tell me you've never read the NIOSH N95 instruction insert in a box of masks without telling me.

          • The filter on an N95 mask works both ways, preventing airborne particles and aerosols from entering your lungs when you inhale, or dispersing outwards when you exhale.

            There is one exception: a valved N95 mask is designed to allow outgoing breath to escape unfiltered.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by PPH ( 736903 )

              or dispersing outwards when you exhale.

              You don't wear glasses, do you? N95 masks don't seal under exhalation pressure. And that fogs glasses. The partial vacuum on inhalation helps them seal. Glasses fogging demonstrates that moist air is escaping, along with the virus particles it carries.

              • You don't wear glasses, do you? N95 masks don't seal under exhalation pressure. And that fogs glasses.

                They do seal if you wear them properly. And yes, I do wear glasses.

          • Perhaps you live somewhere warm. Try going somewhere cold - perhaps a walk in freezer or a hockey arena - where you can see your breath. Walk around, talk, cough, watch your breath. Then try the same thing with a face covering, whether it is an N95 or a bandana you will find those big moist clouds around you are much smaller, in which case you will have learned what children here figure out the first time mom puts a scarf on them and sends them to school in the winter.
          • I look forward to your suffering explosive diarrhea during the upcoming toilet paper shortage followed by hospitalization due to complications from consuming tainted mystery from an undisclosed location.

    • Have a rare disease? Only hope is for you to and intentionally infect the son/daughter of the wealthy.

      The reverse would also be true. Despite billionaires wanting to always be first, in medicine the "second mouse gets the cheese" rule is very real. And very tragic: https://www.science.org/conten... [science.org] If a rich person is sick, what they really need are a lot of guinea pigs with the same orphan disease to be alpha and beta testers for whatever cure someone is trying to sell to them.

    • The entire idea of taxes is to take the money from all - including the wealthy - and use it for the common good.

      Taxes in a just society are properly restricted to doing things only governments should do, keeping in mind that government has a legal monopoly on the use of force in most situations. Allowing the government more money is an invitation to corruption.

      It's too easy to see that food is a common need, and conclude that therefor the government should provide everyone with food. Results from that inclu

    • Because if the only way we can get the money to cure diseases, then I wonder will this start to happen?

      Have a rare disease? Only hope is for you to and intentionally infect the son/daughter of the wealthy.

      This assumes that whatever treatment they come up with would be something us poors would be allowed access to within the lifetime of the person infected. If it's new enough, it'll be cordoned off into the "experimental" category, which traditionally remains the purview of the ultra-wealthy or the independently funded, and not something, at all, that the cattle-grade humans of the general population are allowed to utilize to extend their own lives.

      The entire idea of taxes is to take the money from all - including the wealthy - and use it for the common good. We should NOT have to pray the wealthy becomes interested enough to do it on their own.

      That's the way taxes are sold as necessary. The truth is, tax

  • Is what this story is about or trying to do. Good people should still feel empathy for this woman who suffered something of no fault of her own and was able to find relief, we are all supposed to be emphatic about that right?

    Of course a little difficult when the man funding that has a an almost psychological lack of empathy to where he supports with his time, thoughts and dollars a man, his people and a government that has the least amount of empathy in modern American history. One that routinely mocks th

    • Is what this story is about or trying to do. Good people should still feel empathy for this woman who suffered something of no fault of her own and was able to find relief, we are all supposed to be emphatic about that right?

      Of course a little difficult when the man funding that has a an almost psychological lack of empathy to where he supports with his time, thoughts and dollars a man, his people and a government that has the least amount of empathy in modern American history. One that routinely mocks the very idea of empathy for your fellow man, one that espouses the idea that some humans are undeserving of empathy itself, that they deserve torture and punishment and derision.

      Anyway fuck Bill Ackman, a man who through his actions supports the idea that anybody poor shouldn't have access to medical care. Only his podcast cronies really deserve it.

      Sad for his daughter, would have been better if it was Bill himself, but at least these stories illustrate the one way in which those douchebag billionaires are the same as everyone else. To the rest of the human race his daughter's life is worth exactly the same as a starving child in Sudan. I'm sure he and his friends think otherwise, but none of the rest of the world does. In any case there are some things all the money in the world can't fix, and that occasionally brings these people down to the same

      • Re:Asking for empathy when on is given (Score:4, Informative)

        by jacks smirking reven ( 909048 ) on Monday September 07, 2026 @11:57AM (#66327222)

        They still suffer and grieve like everyone else, and that is a good thing.

        No they don't, not the same as everyone else. Someone else would have to trudge into work the next day because their job offers no bereavement time. Someone else would be facing mountains of medical debt. Someone else would not be able to private jet the rest of their family to a tropical resort for an entire month to try and meditate around their loss.

        Just pointing out the obvious fact that death is a great equalizer means little when the living are anything but close to equal.

        If Bill comes out of this and has publicly changed his tune about his beliefs and his politics and what he should be using his fortune for then maybe, but not until then.

        • Someone else would have to trudge into work the next day because their job offers no bereavement time. Someone else would be facing mountains of medical debt. Someone else would not be able to private jet the rest of their family to a tropical resort for an entire month to try and meditate around their loss.

          Having suffered loss myself those things would add to the pain but still pale next to the loss. I suppose a case could be made that sitting in your private jet grieving over the loss of a loved one is better than doing the same in your mud hut, but at least it brings them closer. Granted, if you offered me a billion dollars or my loved one back I'd take the latter every time. I'm not sure your typical psychopathic billionaire would do the same.

          Just pointing out the obvious fact that death is a great equalizer means little when the living are anything but close to equal.

          Oh life is far from fair for sure, but any equalizers are bett

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by HiThere ( 15173 )

        The difference is that he can try to do something about it that may help others in a similar circumstance.
        I don't even understand cheering for his suffering, but why can't you cheer for his support of medical treatments? Yeah, he may be a lousy person, but that feels, to me, irrelevant.

        • I don't have to cheer him for doing something anyone with the means to do the same thing.

          I can hold the position for a lack of empathy when 1. He didn't do anything until it affected him personally and 2. He puts his money, time and Influence in the support of policies and people who have and would deny medical care to other people. Bill is acting selfish and uncaring even if that happened to lead to a good outcome here.

          If Ackman comes out of this with a change of thought about how he's been acting the pas

        • I don't even understand cheering for his suffering, but why can't you cheer for his support of medical treatments?

          Half hearted support because he is doing it because he is forced to, not because he wants too. As if he would give a shit if his daughter was not sick. LOL. Same with all the rest of the billionaires researching longevity. They are absolutely not doing it out of magnanimity for the human race, they are doing it for 101% selfish reasons. Do you really think they want the poors to live longer? They think they are special, and IMO it's not necessarily bad if they fail, because they are not. Medical rese

  • Allocation of resources (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Njovich ( 553857 ) on Monday September 07, 2026 @11:21AM (#66327194)

    Of course, doing a large investment in health research is by itself a good thing. However, having just 1 person decide vast amounts of allocation of where our top experts spend their time ultimately means that those experts will spend less time on other items. Medical research expertise is a finite resource and letting a couple of rich people hoard it instead of deciding as a society where we want to invest in them ultimately is not efficient.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by havana9 ( 101033 )
      Having only one person that isn't an expert in the field and involved because a relative it's ill it's a problem, because it could invest a lot of money in snake oil or unproven medical protocols, in this case very expensive medical protocols. Do you rembeber "Di Bella method" or "Stamina treatment"?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dvice ( 6309704 )

      Medical research is not a finite resource. The more money you have on the field, the more people will join the field. And pretty much any research you do, can benefit other research in unexpected ways. There are even some worm researchers and yogurt researchers who have made significant contributions to medical research.

  • Just think (Score:3)

    by kaizendojo ( 956951 ) on Monday September 07, 2026 @11:35AM (#66327210)
    We could be doing this on a federal level if we weren't spending all our money on ballrooms, arches and wars that no one asked for.

  • Random thoughts (Score:4, Informative)

    by Woeful Countenance ( 1160487 ) on Monday September 07, 2026 @12:44PM (#66327256)
    * A stroke at age 26 is rare. Did she have an aneurysm, which could have been detected by CT, MRI, or angiogram?
    * The question often asked in similar cases: Are "lifestyle choices" implicated?
    * Apparently strokes in young people [nyp.org] are "on the rise".
    * Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]: "A long-time donor to Democratic candidates and organizations, Ackman endorsed Donald Trump in the 2024 United States presidential election. Ackman has been an active supporter of Israel, particularly following the October 7 attacks, and has criticized the 2024 pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses."
    * "Shortly after midnight on Feb 6 [telegraph.co.uk], Mr Ackman was woken by his eldest daughter, Eloise, who had found Lucy unconscious .... Mr Ackman later determined from data recorded on his daughter’s Oura ring that the haemorrhage had probably occurred at about 9am the previous day ...." Didn't she have any symptoms? A hemorrahgic stroke is typically accompanied by a severe headache and cognitive symptoms.
    * "Six months later, Mr Ackman said she had recovered her cognition and could understand her circumstances." (ibid)
    * "The hedge fund billionaire and his wife, Neri Oxman, have given 10 million shares in his firm, Pershing Square, to the couple's freshly established Ackman Oxman Institute" (ibid) There are already longevity research institutes at university medical schools and research hospitals, but they don't have Ackman's name on them. And "The foundation is controlled by Mr Ackman and his wife, who share voting and investment power over its shares."
    * "The Oura Ring cannot currently detect a cerebral hemorrhage in real time .... Families and doctors have used Oura data after an unexpected medical emergency to review the timeline. ... A sharp, unexplained drop in heart rate variability (HRV) or an abrupt spike in resting heart rate can help pinpoint the exact hour the body experienced acute trauma."
    * "Cognition and Movement: Lucy has regained full cognitive function, understands everything around her, and can walk short distances with assistance." (from LinkedIn, so ....) Lucy needs some of that drug from the movie Lucy.
    * "Experimental Treatment: She recently underwent an experimental mitochondrial transplant procedure -- having healthy mitochondria extracted from her leg muscle and injected into her eyes -- which briefly allowed her pupils to respond to light and perceive shadows, though the visual improvement faded after a few weeks."
    * Mister Language Person: from the Washington Post, story by Elizabeth Dwoskin: "He sprung into action". So evidently the Washington Post has lost sight of the difference between past tense and past participle. They've previously eliminated a lot of copy editors (if not all). Maybe they're using AI to check grammar now. Or not.

    • More like AI slop.

      • But more useful than your comment.

      • More like AI slop.

        Are you responding to my post? Do you have any specific criticisms? Have you found any inaccuracies? If you would share, maybe others could benefit from your insights.

  • but not for you.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by HiThere ( 15173 )

      This is an experimental treatment that you wouldn't want. It's probably not going to work. This is not the sort of thing that organizations would invest money in. But it *MIGHT* work. And that's what he's hoping for.

      A better choice is one of the GLP-1 drugs. Those have a much better chance of success, and MAY retard aging. We're doing a mass experiment at the population level to find out whether long-term use has any bad effects...but it *is* an experiment. There *may* be very bad long term effects.

  • uhh (Score:4, Interesting)

    by nomadic ( 141991 ) <nomadicworld AT gmail DOT com> on Monday September 07, 2026 @02:23PM (#66327354) Homepage

    " suffering a brain hemorrhage that would render her unable to move, speak or see,"

    And they went with sight in the headline? Being unable to move is waaaaay worse.

    Anyway, I feel bad for her and him (though he's a right-wing nutjob who has used his wealth to help drag down American society).

  • Looking for info related to the title? (Score:5, Informative)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Monday September 07, 2026 @02:36PM (#66327366)

    The article hardly talks about it at all... mainly because it sounds like they might not have accomplished much. From TFA:

    For the first few weeks, the treatment — an injection into her eyes — provided Lucy Ackman with a modicum of benefit. She regained the ability to perceive light, according to a paper that Putrino’s team has submitted to the journal Nature, but has not been peer-reviewed. The paper noted that it caused no harm to the eyes, which was important to measure since this was the first time it had been done in a person. After about a month, the benefit appeared to wear off.

    “We are working on a method to inject her eyes with more frequency,” Bill Ackman posted this week, adding that mitochondria “has amazing potential.”

    I'd take the purported temporary "perceiving light" with a big grain of salt.

  • come on (Score:3)

    by hamburger lady ( 218108 ) on Monday September 07, 2026 @03:59PM (#66327460)

    >>the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in May, gave his daughter Lucy's medical team a first-time emergency authorization to transplant mitochondria — the
    >>energy-producing part of human cells — from her leg muscle to her eyes,

    hey, you can't legally mention mitochondria without calling them "the poiwerhouse of the cell"

    >>in the hopes that the tiny cell powerhouses would facilitate healing in her optic nerves and perhaps even restore her vision.

    YESSSSSSS

  • Reminds me of this comic :
    https://www.smbc-comics.com/?i... [smbc-comics.com]

    I'm sure with a couple million dollar for every dose you could stuff a bunch of mitochondria into lipid nanoparticles and inject them ... but why?

  • I keep seeing people vilifying Ackman primarily because he is wealthy, and I think that misses the interesting question here.

    There are two separate issues: whether it is fair that a billionaire can obtain access to experimental medicine that an ordinary family probably could not, and whether a father should use every legitimate resource available when his daughter suffers a catastrophic injury. I have a hard time seeing the second as morally objectionable simply because he has more money.

    The science should

  • ... did Slashdot become a god damned commie circle jerk?

  • > 'She Lost Her Sight. Her Billionaire Father Bet On a Daring New Treatment.'
    Is this slashdot or some clickbait site?

    > The shocking facts about the latest Microsoft update
    > You won't believe what he saw after booting the computer
    > He did the math. The result changed anything

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Today's scientific question is: What in the world is electricity? And where does it go after it leaves the toaster? -- Dave Barry, "What is Electricity?"

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