Star Trek: 10 Weirdest Medical Cases
6. Patient: 32-Year-Old Human Male
Case: Treatment of Traumatic Brain Injury Using Cloned Neural Tissue
Before a discussion of this case, it should be noted that Starfleet Medical does not condone the use of Lyssarian Desert Larvae for the creation of 'mimetic simbiots'. We defer to the legal ruling of the Lyssarian Prime Conclave which outlaws the practice. However, doctors may be permitted to keep a live larval specimen for the sole purpose of extracting a viral suppressant from its epidermal secretions.
The patient, a 32-year-old human male, was presented to sickbay with complex cranial trauma from an explosion and subsequent fall from height whilst attempting a manual shutdown of the warp core. The attending physician noted extensive neural damage and coma for which the likely prognosis was death.
The proposed procedure for treatment was the use of a Lyssarian larva to clone the patient. The average accelerated lifespan of a Lyssarian mimetic simbiot is only 15 days, theoretically allowing for the transplant of neural tissue to the patient from a 'noncritical region' of the clone's cerebrum once ages matched. Complications included the ultimate death of the simbiot clone from the extraction process, and the various moral implications in the first place. Note that this led to the discovery of genetic memory in humans.