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| Mother Holds Out Hope for Toddler's Stem Cell Treatment |
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| Brain Injury | |||
| Tuesday, 15 July 2008 11:04 | |||
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Source: Tb News Source A Thunder Bay family is going the extra mile in an effort to improve the life of their disabled child. The family of Kamryn Pilkington has been searching for ways to reverse the effects of a near-drowning accident two years ago and while there have been many improvements, the little girl is now heading across the globe to try an experimental procedure that holds some promise. Three-year-old Kamryn has participated in various forms of therapy at the George Jeffrey Children's Centre since the accident and has attended an Ability Camp and received hyperbaric oxygen treatment. Her mother Jo-Lynn Martinsen says while she has greatly improved, she wants to quicken the pace to enhance her daughter's quality of life. ''We've been looking at a place in China where they do stem cell treatments. This is something that they say can work on the brain and can help to develop new brain tissue and new cells in the brain. So, we've been researching it for almost a year and we're really, really excited and now we've gone to a point where we're ready to try it.'' So, Martinsen and Kamryn leave for China on Friday and Kamryn will receive eight stem cell treatments injected through two sites, an IV and at the spine. Martinsen says there are no side effects of the treatment and it comes with an 85 to 90-percent chance that the patients see some sort of improvement. ''What I'm hoping for this initial visit, is if it works with Kamryn and she's able to now control her mouth and facial muscles so that she's able to start speaking, make some sounds and drinking better - that's really my big goal. And another goal is to have better weight bearing and better control of her muscles so that everything else will come easily for her, walking, crawling, standing.'' Martinsen and Kamryn will be in China for six weeks and thanks to the ''giant heart of Thunder Bay,'' they have the $45,000 to $50,000 needed to make it happen. She says a friend has also set up a personal assistant to meet them at the airport and get them set up for the first eight days of their stay. Martinsen says she'll miss the people at the George Jeffrey Children's Centre and the sentiment was mutual because many of the staff will miss little Kamryn.
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| Last Updated on Tuesday, 30 December 2008 00:02 |