Health

It is just four months since former Marine sergeant John Peck received a double arm transplant.  But he is already showing incredible progress.  Peck lost all four limbs after standing on a homemade bomb in Afghanistan in 2010. Now, the 31-year-old has reached a milestone he never thought possible: he has two fully functioning arms - and is gaining control of his right elbow. In a video posted to his Facebook page on Tuesday, Peck shared a short exercise with his physiotherapist, sliding a block forwards and backwards across a table. For most, it would be simple. For John, it marks a moment of triumph. He beams at the camera as his physiotherapist straps the wheeled block onto his arm. Viewers then watch as Peck visibly strains to push it away from him, and back to his chest, over and over again. Finally, after reaching his total, he says, 'cool!'

Jennie Yoo (left), 27, from Bangkok, Thailand, suffered from discomfort in her two front teeth towards the end of last year. However, she assumed she would just need a filling. But her concerned dentist could not diagnose her problem and sent to a specialist in Seoul, South Korea. X-rays revealed she had cancer, which was causing a tumour in the left side of her jaw. Despite six rounds of chemotherapy (inset), it has continued to grow and has now disfigured her face (right) completely, twisting her nose and left eye.

Zoe Roscoe, (left) 23, from Bolton, was diagnosed with a brain AVM - a tangle of abnormal blood vessels which can bleed and expand - in 2013. It caused her to suffer stroke-like symptoms, and after a scan, she was told the mass on her brain was a 'ticking time bomb' (inset). She underwent radiosurgery (right) - which gives a high dose of radiation to a very small precise area - and the mass was removed. But it left her with severe weakness on her left side and now she's more prone to fall over and lose her balance, with strangers assuming she's drunk.

Victoria Miller (left), 30, from Rochdale, Lancashire, started suffering from them after contracting meningitis (riight in hospital) - a common after effect. It has forced her to leave her job as a legal assistant, as the pain often left her bedridden for days at a time. She had tried around 35 different drugs to relieve the pain, but nothing proved to work. But in January this year, she was given a series of Botox injections in her head as a last-ditch attempt to cure her. After having five rounds of the treatment - 200 injections in total - she says it has been 'life-saving' and has helped her get back on track.

Nathan Jack, 29, (left with fiancée Natalie Wharton, 31) from Newcastle, has suffered from the disorder since having a brain tumour as a teenager. Cluster headaches, which are believed to affect around one in 1,000 people worldwide, cause excruciating pain on one side of the head. But over the past three years, his condition has deteriorated to the point where he now suffers up to seven debilitating attacks each day. It has left him unable to work, drive and even has forced him to put his wedding on hold. Last week he posted a powerful clip of him punching himself in the head (right) as a result of the condition to raise awareness.

At 22, Tom Wilson had a job he loved as a trainee surveyor with a London property developer. Then, after a terrible accident at hockey practice last December, he never returned from hospital. Shortly after his death, his family was asked whether they wanted to donate his organs. 'It's a decision you never think you will have to make,' says Lisa. 'It was an extremely selfless thought in the darkest of hours.'

Marci Maheson, a surgeon at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, says: 'While we don’t fully understand what causes hip arthritis, in most cases it is the result of wear and tear as we age. Patients can exercise to strengthen muscles and lose weight, as this can put undue pressure on joints, and we can also prescribe painkillers or give steroid injections into the hip to reduce symptoms, but these are temporary measures.'

David Blount Jr (pictured left with his 20-month-old daughter, Jordynn), 28, blasted himself with his high-powered weapon just before a deer shoot in Montgomery, Texas, on November 19 this year. After undergoing three 30 minute operations (pictured right, a skin graft from his left thigh) - one every 48 hours for a week to monitor and clean the wound - he has been told to keep his arm elevated for 40 minutes out of every hour. Mr Blount, who is a father to a 20-month-old daughter and works as a plumber, may never fully regain feeling in his right arm.

Patricia Fowler, 75, was not assigned to a doctor at Blackpool Victoria Hospital, Lancashire, because she was overlooked by a secretary who mistook her for another patient, an inquest heard. There was confusion over who was caring for Mrs Fowler and she was left to grow increasingly ill on a cardiac ward, even after her son raised concerns over her health. Mrs Fowler was eventually seen by doctors three days after being transferred to the ward but by that point had developed pneumonia and sepsis, which led to her death.

Adam McCalmont (right), 16, from Coleraine, Northern Ireland, was diagnosed with mesenchymal chondrosarcoma - a rare form of bone cancer - after complaining of a dull ache in his jaw. Doctors warned there was a chance operating on the tumour could permanently paralyse the schoolboy, or even kill him. Thankfully, chemotherapy proved to be successful and worked in shrinking the tumour. This allowed him to finally undergo a 19-and-a-half hour operation (left) to replace the ravaged muscles and arteries in his face with ones from his leg. He is still struggling to move the left side of his face, but doctors have high hopes for his recovery.

Scientists at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in London are testing the therapy on 20 people with ‘essential tremor’, a brain disorder that causes uncontrollable shaking and affects around one million people in the UK. Those who suffer from tremors currently rely on drugs or an invasive procedure called deep brain stimulation, which involves surgically implanting electrodes into the brain. The shaking is caused by faulty circuits in the thalamus, a small area at the base of the brain.

Last week we learnt that cakes at High Street coffee shops can contain astonishing amounts of sugar. Now, as Christmas draws near, they have rolled out their cream-topped, syrup-flavoured 'festive' drinks, costing more than their normal equivalents and also super-sweet. MATTHEW BELL tried some... He said of Starbucks' fudge hot chocolate: magine putting a Crunchie bar in a blender, then adding sugar and cream. The gold curls create a cheerful first impression but dissolved into a film that clung to my lips, leaving a strange synthetic flavour. I tried a classic hot chocolate afterwards and it tasted bitter compared with this sugary (but heart-warming) slurry.

Father-of-two Dave Tyler suffered a near-fatal blood clot while his head was bent backwards over a basin – the latest case of so-called beauty parlour syndrome. Experts believe that as the neck extends, the artery can over-extend and become torn, either blocking it completely or causing a clot which restricts blood supply to the brain. Sound engineer Mr Tyler began suffering headaches and collapsed during a business meeting two days after visiting the Headmasters salon in Brighton in 2011.

Prescription opioids and illicit drugs have become incredibly pervasive throughout the U.S., and things are only getting worse.  Overdose deaths have increased 137 percent since 2000. In fact, new figures released today revealed more than 50,000 Americans died from drug overdoses last year - the highest figure ever.

David Money (left), 51, from Manchester, spent six weeks in a coma (inset) as his body broke out in tennis-ball sized blisters (right). Doctors battled to keep him alive for five months in hospital after killer bacteria lurking in his dog's mouth seeped into an open wound. This caused him to develop sepsis after his immune system went into overdrive as it tried to fight the infection. Against all odds the HGV driver pulled through, but not before his kidneys both failed - leaving him needing life-saving dialysis every other day.

It was one of the riskiest separation surgeries ever performed. But the 50-surgeon team that divided two-year-olds Eva and Erika Sandoval today appeared at a press conference beaming. The Californian girls shared a digestive system, a uterus, a liver, a bladder, a pelvis, and a third leg with a seven-toed foot. Just two days after the grueling 18-hour operation, the girls are still being closely monitored in the intensive care unit. However, lead surgeon Dr Gary Hartman gushed that both are doing far better than expected. Most excitingly, Erika - the smaller twin who was getting smaller, weaker, and more sickly ahead of surgery - is seeing the most significant improvements. The team has also released photos from inside the operation, and pictures of the 3D-printed models of the girls' shared body parts. Weeping at the press conference with their father Arturo, mother Aida said: 'It's been a dream come true.'

Jadon and Anias McDonald, twin brothers who were conjoined at the head, are thriving post-separation surgery.  The boys have been recuperating with their parents at Montefiore Hospital, showing vast improvements. And now their mother Nicole has posted the first video of them in weeks.

Wayne Meyers woke up in hospital with no recollection of his wife, his four loving children or the past 20 years (top right and bottom right with his wife and eldest son). Days earlier, the forklift driver from South Australia had passed out on the side of the road from heat stroke and severe dehydration. Slowly but surely life returned to normal for Mr Meyers, although he never regained his lost memories. He told Daily Mail Australia about meeting his children for the second time, falling in love with his wife again (pictured left at their second wedding in 2014) and the struggle to find his old self.