Nobody said it was easy to receive stem cell therapy in the United States. Take the case of Elena Porras, a 20 month year old toddler with a spinal cord injury. Her mother, Juliet, wants her to be treated with her own Adult Stem Cells to improve her condition so she may be able to walk or at least have a chance.

Here is what Juliet has had to do to accomplish that goal so far:

1. Find a doctor willing to carry out the stem cell therapy (I'm guessing there are probably only a handful of doctors in the United States who would consider this)


2. To adhere to the US  FDA regulations, that doctor has to begin a clinical trial for not 1, but 10 other patients with spinal cord injuries


3. Raise $300,000 to begin the trial to not only treat Elena, but to help pay for the treatment of the other 9 children in the stem cell clinical trial

Is that all? Sounds like a piece of cake.

Keep in mind, this is a very non invasive, safe procedure using the child's own Adult Stem Cells (Repair Stem Cells)- there is very little risk or downside for a child to have her own stem cells implanted.

Taken from the story:

But because this would be the first time something like this would be done, they decided to do it as an actual clinical trial.

“But to do the trial, I needed to raise a large amount of money that we didn’t have. Dr. Baumgartner put me in touch with TIRR Foundation to help us get the word out,” said Porras.



Elena will then undergo a spinal tap, and the doctors will infuse the cells into her spinal fluid. The whole procedure will take less than a day, and if all goes well, she will be able to go home and sleep in her own bed that night

This is actually a very beautiful story in which the whole community and various organizations are working together to try and help Elena, who previously has beaten cancer. It shows what we Americans (and others) can do when we work together and set our minds on accomplishing a goal.


Looking at it from a glass is half empty point of view, it illustrates what patients face when trying to get a stem cell treatment that has only  upside and very little risk.  The safety of being implanted with your own stem cells has been proven time and time again.

People like Juliet and Elena Porras have to overcome almost as many obstacles as Job to receive what should be the most natural treatment in the world- stem cell therapy using one's own  Adult Stem Cells (Repair Stem Cells).

Happily, with the help of some very nice people, her mother, Juliet Porras, the TIRR foundation and others- it looks like Elena Porras is on her way to receive her stem cell treatment.  Millions of other Americans with not only spinal cord injuries, but other diseases/conditions that can be helped by stem cell therapy aren't as fortunate.

Now, is Elena going to be walking normally after her stem cell treatment- probably not, but it gives her a chance, and most likely her condition will be improved- so why not do it?  There are millions others in the same predicament.  Why not here in the United States?


Click here to read the whole story- you will be glad you did

We have explored the question of storing your baby's umbilical cord for the stem cells before in this blog after Newsweek came out with a biased article about it. .

The author of that article took a very negative slant - first insinuating that the Cord Blood Storage companies were taking advantage of parents saying that there is little chance that the cord blood would ever be used.  (In a perfect world, I hope they would never have to be used, but this isn't a perfect world.)

But then, to make it even worse, Newsweek took aim at a stem cell trial at Duke University which treats children with Cerebral Palsy with their own cord blood stem cells.  Parents of the children who have been treated have been thrilled with the results.  However, Newsweek insinuated that there is no proof that the stem cells were responsible for their improvements.  Read these stories and decide for yourself-  John Centrello, Maia Friedlander, Chloe Levine, and Dallas Hextell .  Also, you can read some of the comments of the friends and family helped by stem cells at Duke following the Newsweek article.

This is a continuous trend by the mainstream media in which they try to downplay each Adult Stem Cell success story.

This is very similar to what happened with the spinal cord injury patient who walked for the first time  in 13 years directly after Adult Stem Cell treatment in Costa Rica. The writer of the newspaper insinuated there was no proof it was the stem cells and said it was possible that the patient improved due to the intense physical therapy she did in Costa Rica instead -  Ridiculous.

Let's get positive now-   I have a happy story from Philadelphia (where yours truly was born :)  in which the mother of  Brandon Orr, a young boy with leukemia in remission - saved the cord blood of her following two sons on the chance that the stem cells would come in handy should her son suffer a relapse.

Unfortunately, Brandon did have a relapse.  However, his mother had prepared:
Years of chemotherapy led to remission but, "Brandyn relapsed," said Susan.

He needed a stem cell transplant and didn't have to worry about waiting for a donor match.

When his two younger brothers were born, Brandyn's mother saved blood from their umbilical cords; cord blood is rich with stem cells.

"It was enough to do the transplant, it was the most wonderful news I've ever heard," said Susan.

The Orr's stored their stem cells at a private blood bank, one of a growing number in a 12-million dollar a year industry.

"Some people look at it as biological insurance," said Stephen Grant of Family Cord.

Stem cells from cord blood can treat diseases like leukemia and sickle cell anemia.

Research is underway for diabetes, heart failure, spinal cord injuries, and stroke.
Susan's convinced cord blood saved Brandyn's life.

"He's my right hand man; he's my heart, my life," said Susan

You can read the full article here

Before I get into this post on how a stem cell transplant helped a young girl with Neuroblastoma- I would like to say congratulations to the Pittsburgh Steelers on their victory in the Super Bowl. I would have liked to see old Kurt Warner lead his Cardinals to a win, he gives inspiration to old fogies like myself. However, it was a great game and both teams have reasons to be proud.

Emily Smith, 8, a young girl from Nacogdoches, Texas, had her Super Bowl victory about 6 years ago. At the age of 17 months, Emily was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma, a cancer that begins in the nervous system.

Emily had a 9 pound tumor that was wrapped around her heart. Her prognosis wasn't good. She was terminal. Chemotherapy was tried- it didn't work.

Doctors decided the only way Emily could survive was a bone marrow transplant with stem cells taken from her own bone marrow.

The procedure would replace Mary's defective and damaged blood cells with her own clean stem cells that had been previously extracted from her own bone marrow. Stem cells are immature cells found in bone marrow that develop into red and white blood cells and platelets.

Emily had more than 250,000 cells extracted, which were then transported to Children's Medical Center in Los Angeles, where they were cleansed of cancer and purged of all diseases.

Just prior to her transplant, Emily was given an aggressive amount of chemotherapy, and placed into a chemically-induced coma, according to her mother.

"She was in a coma when they inseminated her with the stem cells, and she woke up the day before her second birthday," Mary said.

Five days later her stem cells began to graft, and she was on the road to recovery.

She spent the next five weeks in the hospital following her transplant, and then moved with her mother to the Ronald McDonald House for three months.

Emily does have some complication due to the chemo but:


But to the uneducated eye, Emily appears like any other 8-year-old girl, fascinated by puppies and Hello Kitty, and bursting with energy.

Very touching story.  If you look closely, Emily was treated in a similar fashion to those Multiple Sclerosis patients at Northwestern University-- do you see a trend here?


Read the whole story on stem cells saving Emily here

Read this carefully, and I will give you a lesson on how the mainstream media plays us for fools. Yesterday, The Star Telegram in Dallas, Texas ran an article on Jessica Grimm, 27, a young woman who suffered a spinal cord injury at the age of 14 and hasn't walked since.

The title of the article is "Lured by Promise of Stem Cells, Dallas-Ft. Worth residents head abroad for medical treatment"-- Even in the title- people are being "lured" into a death trap. The article starts with their negative slant.

Aside from the title, the article starts off innocently enough:

A quadriplegic since she was 14, Jessica Grimm learned long ago how to work around her body’s limitations.

She lives alone, uses a computer, has a job, even drives a car. But the Arlington student must rely on a coterie of assistants to help her dress, cook and get through each day.

Now 27, Jessica Grimm is eager for more independence. So much so that she traveled to Costa Rica last month for a controversial stem cell treatment that’s unavailable in this country. (Why controversial?  It is an Adult Stem Cell treatment- Don)

Grimm and her family raised about $20,000 to cover her trip to the Institute for Cellular Medicine, where doctors injected her with adult stem cells.

"I was actually able to take a few steps on my own before I left, which I’ve never done," she said. "My mom was crying. Then my physical therapist started crying."

From that point on the article  goes downhill, here's more:

The feat thrilled Grimm, who previously had some mobility in her legs and hand. But she still has no idea whether the treatment actually succeeded.

Doctors told her it could take months to see results. And it’s possible that the real credit for her footsteps should go not to the cell injections, but to the strenuous physical therapy she did in Costa Rica.

So she couldn't walk for 13 years and then all of a sudden after one month of "strenuous physical therapy" AND ADULT STEM CELLS in Costa Rica, she can take some steps on her own and this newspaper suggests it has nothing to do with the cell injections (the stem cells)??  RIDICULOUS!!!

The article deteriorates from a nice story into a opinion piece on "stem cell tourism" using negative headings like "No Promises Made" and "Driven by Desperation" to play on the fear of us Americans (and the rest of the world) that any medical treatment outside of the United States doesn't work.

I am trying to let the United States and the rest of the world know that there is help outside of the US, and it is in the form of stem cell therapy using Adult Stem Cells.   My dream is to see it available everywhere (especially the United States) because it can help millions of people right now- and we do nothing.  Therefore,  people like Jessica have to be pioneers and go outside the United States to get a stem cell treatment that is very safe with little to zero side effects.

Update: Richard Humphries, a Multiple Sclerosis patient who went to Costa Rica with Preston Walker for the "controversial stem cell treatment unavailable in this country"  responds to this negative article on his blog.  This comes from the horse's mouth so to speak- Richard is speaking from personal  experience- go read it.