Tongue tied (sort of)

A dispatch arrives from the cutting edge of science, where the wonders never cease:

Tongue made from buttocks

A Polish man who had his tongue removed has had a new one made using tissue taken from his buttocks.

Jarislav Ernst, 23, from Gliwice, now has a functioning tongue made from his backside after surgery at the Oncology Clinic in Gliwice's General Hospital.

Head doctor Stanislaw Poltorek said: "The new tongue is alive and well-supplied with blood, and the patient is doing well."

Mr Ernst's tongue was removed after it was diagnosed with cancer.

Dr Poltorek added: "We removed the tumour-filled tongue, checking that there were no remaining cancerous cells around the patient's mouth, then collected skin, fat and nerve tissue from the man's buttocks and modelled that into a new tongue, which we sewed into his mouth."