Megan Traynor

Northern Ireland, 7

Click here to watch a short video about Megan at Vimeo.

Condition

Megan has septo-optic dysplasia, a broad congenital condition which is the result of an underdeveloped optic nerve and septum in the brain. In Megan, this has led to several medical conditions including blindness, seizures, diabetes insipidus, hypo-thyroidism and growth deficiency. She was able to receive treatment for most of these conditions in the U.K., but there were no options available to treat her blindness. She has also displayed behaviors similar to those seen in children with autism spectrum disorders: uncommunicative, unable to feed herself and incapable of making complete sentences.

Reason for Coming for Treatment

Coming to China in February of 2009, Megan was one of the first patients from the UK to receive stem cell treatment for septo-optic dysplasia. As her father explains, they found few options for treating Megan's blindness in the U.K., "They were just going to try and control the other symptoms other than the blindness. They said the blindness could not be cured. They would literally have to connect every single optic nerve to her brain and it would take years to do it, so their was no hope for the eyesight, but they would try to get everything else to a standard level."

After finding out about the stem cell treatment options in China, and reading about the experiences of other children with the same condition as Megan, they decided to take the journey.

Treatment in China

7 Umbilical Cord Stem Cell Transplants combined with Acupuncture and Rehabilitation Therapy.

Condition After Treatment

After a month receiving stem cell transplants in China, Megan's condition had already changed. Immediate changes her father first noticed were in her behavior. While before therapy she would only walk 20m before asking to be carried she would walk distances up to a mile with family around the hospital. She potty-trained herself while in China which was a big help for her parents.

Condition Today

Her mother emailed recently giving us an update on how Megan is doing several months after her treatment. We'd like to thank her for allowing us to share her comments:

"Megan's sight has definitely improved. She had no sight at all before the treatment, but now the electrophysiology report Megan received stated that Megan has a strong response to the light in her left eye and a slight response in her right!

"She is amazing us at the moment as she has started to kiss mirrors. Her new thing is when daddy says give me five and puts his right hand up, Megan gives him five with her right. When he says give me five with the left hand guess what?? She gives five with her left!! MEGAN HAD NO SIGHT AT ALL BEFORE TREATMENT!!

"Also before, when we were feeding Megan, we touched her lips with the spoon first so that she knew where it was. Now she opens her mouth as soon as we lift the spoon. And that's not all.'... SHE IS NOW FEEDING HERSELF!!

"Megan also has autism and her progress is as follows: 
She can now climb the stairs!!
She can now feed herself!
She no longer needs nappies through the day!!
She is forming proper sentences!
She is communicating, hugging and interacting with her baby sister, often helping by bringing nappies.

"Megan was having seizures, in fact she was having 2 to 3 a day in the fortnight leading up to her trip to China. She has had one since she returned 4 months ago and it only lasted 2 to 3 minutes!!

"Her teacher, social worker and speech and language therapist say its as if Stuart has brought a new child home!! She even won an award at school for outstanding effort and progress!

"Another progression is that Megan is growing rapidly on her own and no longer requires her growth hormone injection that she had every night."