" I feel almost normal, you know. I have no double vision. I can feel the right side of my body. My balance is a whole lot better. I feel really, really good. I have no negatives from the experience at all. "
Here at StemCellsChina we'd like to thank London's mother and grandmother for providing us with this patient experience! Click play on the video to watch it in the browser. Be sure to search StemCellsChina for other articles about London.
London Ruby Call came into the world without a septum pellucidum which separates the ventricles of her brain. Because of this problem she was born blind. London was in the NIC Unit for over a month after her birth. London has no light perception and her eyes do not dilate she is in complete darkness. Her optic nerves are not large enough to send a message to her occipital lobe so she cannot see anything. London also suffers from Diabetes Insipidus (DI) it is a condition that occurs because her kidneys are unable to conserve water as they perform their function of filtering blood. The amount of water she conserves is controlled by medicine. Without this medicine she would dehydrate and die. London will turn 3 years old on November 27, 2010. London’s eye Dr. told us there would be nothing we could do for her and it was hard for us to accept. After researching we found help for London in China and was accepted by Beike Biotechnology Co., Ltd. in China to receive healthy stem cells from umbilical cords. London could not have this procedure in the USA they do not offer it. So began our fund-raising events and we had enough money saved for London to receive her treatments in 11 months.
Our hope is that these stem cells may help London with blindness and perhaps increase her ability to learn more as she has been much delayed in this area. Any kind of improvement to help London with her quality of life is what we hope to gain from London’s treatments. We arrived in China on December 8, 2009. The hospital staff was very accommodating and helped us to settle in for our long journey. London received 9 stem cell transfers over a 43 day stay in Qingdao. After London’s 3rd treatment her eyes started dilating (which had never happened before) and we were thrilled to say the least.
Before going to Qingdao for stem cell transplants London said only three words, would not walk, crawl or sit herself up if she fell over from a sitting position.
Condition Following Therapy
We have been home 3 months now and London has increased her vocabulary by twelve words, she will now sit herself up if she falls over, is on her hands and knees beginning to crawl and has stood herself up in her crib. Her eyes are now dilating and she has light perception. We have lighted balls we play with and she will reach out for them. Every week we find new little advancements in her progress and we are thrilled with what she has achieved in such a short time. We look forward to seeing what the next few months have in store for London and we may bring her back for another set of treatments if at all possible.
Without theses treatments we are sure London would be left in a world of darkness and this gives us hope for her future. We are blessed and very thankful we were afforded the opportunity for this to happen. Thank you to everyone in China who attended so well to London and our needs and thank you to everyone who supported London in her quest for vision.
