Posted on 11/20/2005 5:49:18 PM PST by wagglebee
INVERNESS, Scotland, November 18, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A British teen who has multiple sclerosis now claims she is walking after umbilical cord stem cell therapy she traveled abroad to receive.
Wheelchair-bound since 2003, 19 year-old Amanda Bryson told The Herald that she has been walking daily since immediately after her treatment from a private clinic in the Netherlands Friday.
Believed to be the only British beneficiary of the umbilical cord stem cell therapy, Bryson said this week, "It sounds shocking, but I could feel the difference after just five minutes. Since the treatment I have been transformed. I am doing things I couldn't do a year ago. Hopefully I will be fully recovered in a year."
The private treatment from the PMC Clinic in Rotterdam cost Bryson and her family £12,500 ($21,500 USD).
"Within 10 minutes after the treatment I went to the bathroom on my wheelchair, I went to stand up and I thought I was jumping off my chair," she told the BBC news. "It felt absolutely fantastic, brilliant. I thought at first 'this is in my mind,' but I spoke to the nurse who told me it happens, they've seen it happen plenty of times. That's the moment where it just filled me with hope for the future."
Bryson applauded the therapy that she said, because it was harmlessly derived from babies' umbilical cords after birth, was of no harm to them or anyone.
Bryson described the procedure: "Stem cells were injected into a solution which was put into my arm," she said, according to a Daily Record report. "Then, two doses were injected into the back of my neck to tackle the damage to my spine and brain. Then, there were three further injections into my belly. I was in the clinic for three to four hours."
"The stem cells are there to repair the damage to my cells," she added. "It is a progressive thing and could take months. But, considering there is a huge difference in just a few days, I am very hopeful. If the treatment is not working the way the clinic thinks it should, I will return for a top-up in six months. But the doctors are convinced I won't need it. They say I should make at least an 80 per cent recovery."
In an interview in 2003 with Dr. Peter Hollands, Scientific Director of Cells for Life, a private cord blood bank in Markham Ontario, LifeSiteNews.com asked him to comment on the widely held belief that embryonic stem cells might work better than umbilical stem cells, such as those from cord blood. Dr. Hollands said "Why may they work better? We do not even know if they (embryonic stem cells) will work at all! The public must know that adult and umbilical cord blood stem cells are available, proven and ready to use for a range of diseases. We must get away from this idea of the promise of embryonic stem cells and look at the realities of adult and umbilical cord blood stem cells. Embryonic stem cells have yet to be used to treat any form of disease."
Dr. Hollands also disagreed with those who contend there is a great need to continue study of embryonic stem cells. "We should focus our attention on the most readily available and usable type of cells and these are adult and umbilical cord stem cells. Embryonic stem cells at present are largely political rhetoric and scientific hype. Adult and umbilical cord blood stem cells are proven and ready to use. The public needs to know this," he said.
If embryonic stems cells had yielded these results, it would be on the front pages of papers around the world; but since no infants were slaughtered, the news gets buried.
Pro-life ping.
What is also generally ignored is that Bush has only restricted FEDERAL funding of embryonic stem cell research, private groups are free to pursue this as much as they want. However, the biotechs have ignored ECS, while pouring piles of money into umbilical cord cell and adult stem cell research. The only reasonable conclusion is that the private sector has determined that embryonic stem cell research will not provide enough advances to justify the financial investment.
I admit it does sound peculiar; however, I believe that many MS patients who are wheelchair bound are able to stand up to use the bathroom or get into bed or a chair. While unable to walk, they still have the strength to stand, so this girl's story is quite plausible.
Yes, TV reports on adult and umbilical stem cell search is either watered down, or dismissed.
Because it provides evidence that embryonic stem cell research is not only unproductive, it is also unnecessary.
I suffered an injury recently myself - a head injury, I have to mind myself for a while.
Isaiah 49:16 Behold, I have
graven thee upon the palms of my hands.
Isiah 44:2 I am your creator. You were in my care even before you were born.
Jeremiah 1:5 Before I formed you in the womb
I knew you.
Jesus loves the children of the world
The Born and The Unborn
It is not a choice
It is a child.
I am not against all stem cell research, only when it includes creating and killing fetuses to do it.
TRUE!
As you say - just to justify infantfide, but I also think a modern form of eugenics is at play here, as someone pointed out on another thread recently, 'bioethics' reminds him of 'eugenics'!!
I have done a lot of research over the past few years into the history and beliefs of the eugenics movement. It is truly frightening to watch their treachery unfold.
Multiple Sclerosis Bump
"The public must know that adult and umbilical cord blood stem cells are available, proven and ready to use for a range of diseases. We must get away from this idea of the promise of embryonic stem cells and look at the realities of adult and umbilical cord blood stem cells. Embryonic stem cells have yet to be used to treat any form of disease."
Demands repeating!
Again and again.
I saw a program on TV, several months ago, where a young boy with Franconis Anemia was to received an umbilical cord stem cell transplant, in an attempt to cure him of his disease...I do seem to remember that he was doing well after the transplant, but since it was experimental, ,it will be a long time until they know for sure if the transplant worked...
I had a son with a usually fatal form of leukemia...he could not get the regular allogeneic bone marrow transplant, because we had not suitable donor...however, if we had had access to umbilical stem cells, it might have been an option...(but this was 20yrs ago, and I dont think they were doing umbilical transplants back then)...
If I were to ever have another child, I would indeed save their umbilical cord blood, as it might just save your own child, or save anothers child...
There's more than a little truth to that.
I read this story to my MS stricken wife who also had a bout as a teen but was misdiagnosed. So much for Irish healthcare in the 80's!
Her first reaction was the same as yours. Nerves try over time to reconnect the pathways blocked by MS. Though several years is a pretty long time.
Think 'Galactia' or 'Brave New World'!!
One of my favorite people from grade school through high school has suffered her whole adult life with MS...
I would love to see the day when Elaine is free to do whatever
she wished... pain and fear free...
Sorry to hear that about your wife.
We have bad healthcare in Ireland because it's state ran!!
I was in hospital myself recently (I'm recovering well), and I left thinking; yes, definitely privatize it - the staff behave like they own you!!
You took the words right out of my mouth!
Ping.
I've heard (from my Irish relatives!) that National Health in the UK makes it more difficult to get private insurance coverage than in Ireland.
My wife's family has private insurance and did even back then. My wife was at UCD when she checked into the hospital after becoming paralyzed. Her mother was shocked to find her in the public side of the hospital. Little did she know that her daughter had already been wheeled out on a gurney in front of a big collection of the medical students!
Her mother put an end to any more expositions!
My wife eventually recovered but was struck with full blown MS last year that's been reeking havoc on her nervous system despite treatment. She's doing pretty well right now though. Some docs thought she had a back injury, another thought she had some other nerve disease but looking back now, she thinks it was MS.
Ah well, lot of good even private insurance did for her!
Health is in a mess these days, private or public!!
Sorry to hear about your injury by the way. Was it in a car accident?
I'm was always shocked driving in the west of Ireland and the poorly maintained roads with harrowing blind curves. The lorries always seemed to drive right in the middle of the road until turning in just before a head on collision. I found it unnerving and I thought driving in New Jersey was only for those with strong intestinal fortitude!
Please FReepmail me if you would like to be added to, or removed from, the (new!) Multiple Sclerosis ping list...
Thank you very much for the head's up!
Please FReepmail me if you would like to be added to, or removed from, this ping list...
I'm skeptical. I saw a program on TV (I think on Discovery Health Channel) in which a quadriplegic spent thousands of dollars to have stem cell therapy at a clinic in Utah(?). It was supposed to "regenerate" the nerves damaged in his spinal cord. He initially reported what he perceived to be improvement, but objectively, there was none. It was a scam. I'm not saying that this is, but I'm leery of the results; wheel-chair bound, and then jumped out of the chair and is walking 10 minutes after? Hmmmm....
You are not alone in that thought.
You can go to this link and ask your U.S. senators to support a blood cord bill:
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=AL05K06&f=AL05K06&t=e
The Democrats are holding this bill up.
Thanks for the ping!
A head injury? Yeah, you better mind yourself and hopefully your loved ones will mind you as well.
One ought to cultivate a hopeful but skeptical attitude with any treatment for MS--including this one. The progression of the disease (frequent "remissions") has opened the door to a lot of charlatans and heartbreak.
I'm having a hard time accepting some of the story. I think it's another attempt to legitimize & garner acceptance of umbilical cord/fetal stem cell research.
I am, and they are!!
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