Free Make Me Yours: A BWWM Billionaire Love Story by Cher Etan, BWWM Club

said.
    Smith made a
generous ‘go ahead’ gesture with his hand and Dean
reached for his phone.
    “ Hi,”
he said.
    “ Hi,”
Meaghan replied. “I hope I’m not disturbing you?”
    “ No.
I’m having lunch…with Smith. He says hi,” Dean
said.
    “ Hi
Smith,” Meaghan said but she sounded distracted.
    “ What’s
up?” Dean asked a frown marring his brow.
    “ Well
I’ve just come out of a CME at the hospital,” Meaghan
began.
    “ CME?”
Dean interrupted. “I don’t know those words.”
    “ Oh
sorry, it means continuous medical education. Anyway we were
discussing aids to facilitate people who are developmentally
impaired,” she said.
    “ Uh
huh?” Dean said wondering where the hell this was going.
    “ There
is some great technology out there,” she said sounding a bit
hesitant and Dean had no idea why.
    “ And?”
he prompted. He was sure she must be going somewhere. It was in her
tone, in the reluctance of it like she was afraid of his reaction.
Was she moving away to study these things or something?
    “ Aand,
well you told me how hard it is the fact that you can’t
communicate properly with your dad and I just thought that you might
like to try this machine,” she said getting the words out
quickly and breathlessly like it would reduce the impact of what she
was saying.
    “ I
mean this stuff works; it basically takes brainwaves and transforms
them into speech or movement. Yes it might sound a bit like
terminator or whatever but many patients have benefited from its
usage and at least your father would be able to articulate whatever
he likes rather than relying on people around him to just guess.”
    “ Meaghan,
I need you to slow down and explain to me what you’re getting
at. No scratch that. When does your shift end?”
    “ Three
o’ clock. But then I have to be at the Shelley Project probably
until seven maybe later.”
    “ Okay
then I’ll come by there around seven and we can talk okay?”
    “ You
don’t have to I mean-“ Meaghan began.
    “ I
want to,” Dean interrupted. “See you then.”
    He hung up and
looked up to see Smith smiling at him.
    “ You.
Have got it. Bad.” he said.
    *****
    “ The
Brain Lab was one of the first to demonstrate that a person can
control a robotic arm and a wheelchair with brain signals,”
Meaghan said as they walked through the clinic. It was Dean’s
first time at the Shelley project and Meaghan was giving the tour as
she explained about her idea.
    "It’s
possible to literally influence the wiring of the brain, rewiring the
brain, so to speak, to allow them to make new neural connections, and
hopefully to restore movement to a paralyzed arm." She continued
looking at Dean to see if he understood what she was saying.
    “ It
was developed to help people with various types of paralysis. Now
your dad can’t speak and this technology might help. Patients
with locked-in syndrome consist of a smaller subset in need of such
technologies. This is a rare neurological disorder where patients
feel, think, and understand language, but cannot move or speak --
they are "prisoners in their own bodies, just like your dad,”
Meaghan explained.
    Dean nodded his head
to show that he understood. He was listening intently.
    “ For
example you might have heard of Jean-Dominique Bauby, who became
locked-in after a stroke, and wrote the memoir "The Diving Bell
and the Butterfly" by blinking to indicate individual letters.
Imagine that your dad might be able to move and communicate using the
same technology.” Meaghan said clutching at Dean’s arm in
her enthusiasm.
    “ There
has been a lot of activity in brain-computer interfaces to help such
people.”
    “ So
why haven’t his doctors recommended it?” Dean wanted to
know.
    “ It’s
all very new. It’s actually at the pioneering stage right now.
A research group laboratory for a guy named Miguel Nicolelis have
shown that a rhesus monkey in North Carolina could, using only its
brain, control the walking