John sat in the uncomfortable chair, looking at the sparsely filled office. His right arm jumped violently again; a problem that had been recurring for the past few months. John frowned. The twitches were getting worse. They had started out as simple flicks of the finger, but soon his whole arm was either numb or convulsing. He had come in to the hospital to find the problem. The doctors had done some tests, and became more and more flustered as the machines clicked and beeped.
John looked up as the door opened, and the doctor entered. He was a tall, thin man, in his late thirties, with already greying hair. He offered his hand. "John Walsh? I'm Dr. Stine." The doctor flipped open the file that sat on the desk and read its contents. After scanning the pages, Dr. Stine leaned back in his chair and sighed. "Mr. Walsh, I'm afraid I have bad news."
"The right cerebellum, the part of your brain which controls the movement of your arm, is being eaten away by a viral infection at an extremely rapid rate. Given a few weeks, you could lose all use of your arm." John slumped in his chair. "Shit." Dr. Stine nodded. "It gets worse. There is a very high chance that the virus will spread to the rest of your cerebellum. We're going to need to stop the spreading as soon as we can, to retain as much bodily function as possible."
"Wait, what do you mean, stop the spreading?" Dr. Stine winced "Basically, Mr. Walsh, we're going to have to surgically remove a large part of your right cerebellum." John sunk even lower into his chair. "Is there any other way? Anything at all?" Dr. Stine removed his glasses and sighed. "There is a way, but you may not like it."
"We've recently discovered a way to surgically graph nerve endings from two different sources together. This could mean new technological paths in medicine, but more importantly, it means that you will retain all use of your arm."
"Is it risky?"
"The technology is still very new, so we don't know that much about it. So, yes, it is extremely risky."
Dr. Stine replaced his glasses and leant forward. "Mr. Walsh, I must ask you to think about this very seriously. Although it may seem like the perfect opportunity, the truth is that this is still an extremely untested procedure, so we don't know everything that could happen. There is a very high chance that the surgery could kill you." John stared hard at the industrial carpeting. A minute later, he clenched his jaw. "I'll do it."