I have a friend whose son went through a cord blood transplant at Duke. I think he's doing okay. He also had a genetic disease.
The Los Angeles Times did a hit-piece on umbilical cord blood maybe a year ago.
I guess it was an attempt to divert attention from the so-far-fruitless
attempt to use embryonic stem cells to combat diseases. And that
the California taxpayers were going to have $3-6 Billion extracted to
pay for an unproved therapy.
(Don't get me wrong: embryonic stem cells may yet be a miracle cure.
But that's what venture capital companys are supposed to fund)
The real kicker of the article was the interview with a lawyer that was
chasing clients to sue umbilical cord blood banks, presumably under
the guise that the banks were promising too much to customers.