Posted on 03/06/2009 3:45:25 PM PST by MyTwoCopperCoins
CHENNAI: In a heart-warming story of compassion, an Australian donor, a Singapore doctor and a Chennai philanthropist came together to give a student a new lease of life.
Vigneshwaran, a 22-year-old Chennai student has been cured of blood cancer through stem cell therapy in Singapore using stem cells of a donor from Australia, thanks to a friend's mother who collected money for the treatment.
While Dr Patrick Tan of Mount Elizabeth Hospital successfully carried out the stem cell transplant, the driving force behind the treatment was Shanti Suresh, a friend's mother who managed Rs 1.25 crore (approx. USD 2.5 million) for the procedure. While Shanti garnered Rs 80 lakh (approx. USD 160,000), the rest was contributed by Vigneshwaran's classmates from Guindy Engineering College.
Mount Elizabeth Hospital, which was on a global search for a suitable stem cell donor for Vigneshwaran, stumbled upon a woman donor in Australia within a week of Vigneshwaran's hospitalisation in Singapore. The samples matched on nine out of 10 counts.
Vigneshwaran had been fighting blood cancer for five years, which included three relapses after different spells of treatment. Now, two years after the transplant (the mandatory period to certify a blood cancer patient as cured), doctors have certified him completely cured. Vigneshwaran says he is indebted to everyone who stood by him, more so his unknown donor from Australia. He will soon be completing his engineering course and has already landed a job with Tata Consultancy Services.
Vigneshwaran's case study and the astronomical cost involved for conducting the therapy outside the country also brings into focus the need for government's intervention in popularising stem cell therapy in India and allowing foreign donor participation in the country, besides setting up of cord blood banks across the country. Vigneshwaran hopes his story of fighting the disease will encourage hundreds of blood cancer patients and their family members to opt for stem cell therapy.
Vigneshwaran was diagnosed with blood cancer (acute myeloid leukaemia) when he was studying in 11th standard at his home town in Palani. Since then, he and his family has been through a lot of agony till they found a helping hand in Shanti Suresh and in his classmates at Guindy Engineering College.
"We had lost almost everything in the five years of treatment. But my classmates then took up the matter with my department head and they started raising funds. The turning point was when Arun, one of my classmates, took up my case up with his parents," said Vigneshwaran.
Shanti Suresh, mother of Arun, took the initiative to raise funds. She, with the help of her businessman husband, contacted all their sources and managed to raise a first instalment of Rs 40 lakh (USD 80,000) and then another Rs 40 lakh from her husband's company.
"Vigneshwaran's mother Subalakshmi told me that she had overheard him talking to his friends that he wanted to live, for which they had to collect money. I also have a son who is of Vigneshwaran's age. I decided to do whatever I could for him," Shanti Suresh said.
Students of Anna University's Guindy Engineering College had also raised Rs 45 lakh (approx. USD 90,000) by then. Shanti and the boy's parents then probed the possible treatments available and learnt about stem cell therapy.
Vigneshwaran had to look for options outside the country as stem cell samples from his blood relatives did not match and there was no cord blood bank in the country to get a non-relative donor. It was only last month that a city-based blood bank has initiated the process of setting up the first public stem cell bank.
Isn't she the dead sister of Dr. Suresh in "Heroes" with the "Shanti Virus" named after her?....just sayin'...
FMCDH(BITS)
Adult stem cells are having great success and showing much promise.
Embryonic stem cells? Nothing but tumors.
So why do some keep pushing the embryonic debate?
Abortion. This whole things has to do with the abortion issue.
I hope the way is cleared soon for the use of Adult Stem cells as treatment for cancer in this country. It could possibly save many from the debilitating effects of chemotherapy.
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