In the fall of 2009, a nine year old cerebral palsy child, unable to walk , or hold herself up while sitting or even stand flat-footed on the floor was taken to China by her Australian parents for stem cells. The child was the survivor of twins born
sixteen weeks prematurely! The results after only three months were astounding, and RSCI featured her in its 2010 kickoff Newsletter:
http://www.repairstemcells.org/newsletters/NL010110.htm
Now we bring you the USA version, a five year old treated with stem cells at Duke after surviving a cord-strangling birth which cost him a huge loss in brain function. Enjoy!
CORVALLIS, Ore. -- Five-year-old Dylan Cain battled with a crippling neurological disorder since birth. But now, thanks to a cutting edge stem-cell procedure, along with hyerbaric-oxygen treatments, parents say he is winning the battle of his life.
Dylan Cain was part of a new study at Duke University that used his mother's cord blood-cells to regenerate damaged cells in his brain. Now his mother says she has discovered another treatment that has truly brought Dylan to life.
From the moment Dylan Cain entered into the world, his parents had to fight for him.
She took him with forceps which bruised his eyes and his face," recalls Dylan's mom, Jinger Cain. "...Pulled him out and broke his collar bone, and the cord was around his neck. He wasn't breathing when he was born. He was blue."
Baby Dylan's complication rendered him unable to breathe. Doctors finally were able to resuscitate Dylan after several minutes.
"He peed and breathed at the same time," recalls Mark Cain, Dylan's dad. "He started crying and it was the happiest moment of my life."
A few hours which felt like eons to Dylan's mom. Mother and baby were finally united.
"We had no idea really the depth of the damage that little episode caused for Dylan," recalls Jinger.
As the months passed, Jinger and her husband Mark could tell something was wrong. Dylan wasn't reaching the typical milestones like other infants.
"He wasn't doing anything," Mark remembers. "He wasn't looking at any object. He wasn't making any eye contact."
Then came the first batch of bad news: doctors declared Dylan legally blind at four months old. A little over a year later, he was diagnosed with a severe case of cerebral palsy. The disease constricted Dylan's movement, his eyesight, his ability to learn, as well as his freedom of expression.
The family fought through it, though they and his teachers admit things weren't significantly better as dylan approached his fourth birthday.
"He was screaming, he was throwing things," says Jeannie Hatchett. "He was hitting his head. He was banging his head on the floor."
Then, finally, some good news: Jinger recieved a letter that would dramatically change all of their lives.
"And I cried as I read it," remembers Jinger. "Oh my gosh, Mark! Biocord is doing this study with Duke University. I couldn't even sleep that night. I knew Dylan needed to be in that study," she continued.
Dylan would be one of just 50 children in the country to have his cord blood stem cells injected into his body. Researchers at Duke found that those cells, once injected into the body, could circulate and regenerate damaged cells in patients with brain damage or neurological disorders.
"The next day after his infusion he was bouncing off the walls," tells Mark. "It's like we gave him five candy bars or something. He was just really everywhere. He was making a lot of noises and sitting there laughing at nothing."
His parents say, after his procedure, his vocabularly exploded. The right side of his body that was once rigid is now moving.
Blown away by the results, the family searched far and wide for another procedure that would help keep the momentum going. They found what they were looking for in Bend with a procedure called hyperbarics.
"You can improve the oxygen concentration delivery to various parts of the body," explains Doctor Robert Pinnick. "All of the parts of the body."
At first, doctor Pinnick's staff was a bit skeptical that the chambers would help. But it didn't take long before they were seeing the results.
"There are no members of our team who have any question about whether or not that was beneficial or not for him now," Pinnick believes.
Just a few days after his first treatments in the chamber, Dylan was sleeping better and even his vision improved.
Those behaviors that were so severe and so intimidating to a lot of people are almost gone," Hatchett explains. "You can almost carry on a conversation with him."
A long journey in Dylan's five short years, but a journey with a much brighter future.
"If it's based upon our commitment and our dedication to Dylan," says Jinger, "we'll see anything through to help Dylan have a normal life.
Currently, the hyperbaric treatments aren't covered by insurance. Dylan's mother says her next fight is getting hyperbaric treatments covered by insurance so it's easier for other children who have cerebral palsy to use the treatment.