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This will be a long post today. But please stay with me- I'm going to a good place and I think you will learn something.
Come with me-
Michael Snow was a victim of a forceps slipping during his breach birth. The slippage caused a skull fracture and his cerebral cortex was damaged. This brain injury (cerebral palsy) has affected Michael's ability to speak, move, and even sit up.
The doctors recommended Michael be put in a hospice, but Michael's parents had none of that:
It™s amazing how quickly some doctors give up. They made us feel like he was taking up space and needed to move on, Snow said. Through prayer, the Snows decided to seek further treatment and to accept whatever God had planned for their son.We took a leap of faith. I™m a very simple person and I felt if Michael were going to die, at least he would be given love, Mrs. Snow said. He would know love and be given love in the time he had. Choices like this are life and death decisions, and I had a motherly feeling that I wanted him to be in my arms. 2 years ago, the Snows decided to try stem cell treatment for Michael. Being devoutly Catholic, they researched and found that the Adult Stem Cells found in umbilical cord blood presented no ethical issues.
Now, I have documented in this blog about the many children with
Cerebral Palsy who have gone to Duke University and received cord blood stem cells taken from their own cord blood stored at birth. Well, what if you didn't store your baby's cord blood and he/she has some condition like Cerebral Palsy?? What do you do? Unfortunately, you have to go outside of the United States. Germany, Costa Rica, China are just a few countries that use cord blood stem cells that are donated at birth.
That is precisely what the Snows did. They took Michael to Tijuana, Mexico where he was treated:
The treatment had been used with some success in children with cerebral palsy, so we met with researchers and decided to go for it, he said.
We wanted to do everything we could and explore everything we could for Michael, Mrs. Snow said.
What™s sad about the whole thing is this treatment shouldn™t be so expensive, and people shouldn™t have to leave the country to try it. I wish researchers were doing more to look into cord blood stem cells. It™s been left behind by other research.
Now, this stem cell treatment wasn't a miracle treatment as most stories I have on this blog. However, Michael did improve some:
Snow said Michael was having severe problems with tremors prior to one of the treatments, and improved after receiving the cells. He has also had some improvement in his eyesight and other functions, but still remains unable to walk or perform other tasks without assistance. We didn™t get the miracle we hoped for when we tried the stem cells, but we saw some improvement, and we™ve seen others who have been helped in a big way by the treatments, Snow said. Snow said he wants to continue to explore different options for his son, and thinks cord blood and adult stem cells will play a key part in the future treatment of people with neurological disabilities. I really pray about upcoming stem cell treatments, and I wish there was more emphasis in this country on this research, he said. You can™t wait forever when you have someone with a strong need like Michael™s. Here is my sermon- I envision a United States where the use of cord blood stem cells and autologous stem cells is commonplace. What did the Snows have to lose? Nothing except some money. Adult Stem Cells have been proven safe time and time again. And while it wasn't a miracle cure in this case, it did help. Control of bowel movement in Spinal Cord Injury patients, 10% increases in heart function of Heart Disease patients, or an increase in vision in Optic nerve disorders- while stem cells aren't a 100% cure in these cases, to the patient and their families- these differences in the patient's quality of life can be humongous.
Dr. Fernandez Vina, the deputy chairman on the Repair Stem Cell Institute Science Advisory Board and one of the pioneers of stem cell therapy says it best:
For doctors who say that current stem cell therapies are "unproven," Dr. Fernandez Viña has the following response:
"How many patients must to be treated to say this is a cure? How many patients must die waiting for the word "cure?"
A lot of diseases are not totally cured with drugs but the laboratories talk about curing (HIV, Tuberculosis and a lot of malignant deseases). They say that the drugs "cure" but in reality the drugs improve the quality of life. Stem cells "cure" in the same sense. If a person is dying of diabetes and we improve the prognosis and he no longer needs insulin injections, we increase the C peptide, decrease the HbA1c, decrease protein in the urine, decrease the risk of amputation or kidney failure, in my book that is a "cure."
Dr. Vina is right. Promises of Obama freeing up money for stem cell research?? Sure we can always do more research, but we already have something. We already have something right now that can be used- Adult Stem Cells- to help millions of people. It is at our fingertips and we refuse to use it- the longer we wait, the more that die- that is a real tragedy.
Here is the
full article