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| Science Meets Spirit |
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| Mercredi, 20 Décembre 2006 08:00 | |||
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There are no translations available. Source: Toronto Sun By Thane Burnett SHENZHEN, China -- Early this morning, as their hometown of Port Perry slept, the Deering family planned to form another bright circle of energy half a world away. At around 2 a.m. Ontario time, Shannon, who's 21 and Erica who is just 18 years old, werescheduled to enter a sterilized procedure suite in The 6th People's Hospital of Shenzhen's stem cell ward for their second round of experimental treatment. The pair was in a 2004 car crash that robbed them the use of their legs. But not their mighty will, which seems to be always shared. When they were little girls, they would hold hands -- along with their dad, Tony, and mom, Deborah, who are here for them now -- and imagine energy flowing among their fingers. It was unstoppable power to the fourth degree. They have even linked up with Canadians, including a west-coast dream healer, who were expected to bemeditating about the girls at just around the same time this morning -- 13 hours behind China. Deborah callstheir family circle"lightning." In the years since the girls grew to become young women, a lot has changed. Deborah and Tony split up. The lives of the girls took a turn for the worst -- then a little better each day. Now the family has brought back "lightning," hopingit will encourage higher powers to look kindly on the sisters. Before the procedures, they all hold hands -- including Canadian nurses Fay Fraser and Laurie Love -- and try to share the energy. The power of combined will. It's science meets spirit. Who knows which is more powerful? "A bit of wishful thinking," Shannon explains, as she prepares for another daily round of acupuncture -- a painful ordeal that has left the girls' skin bruised. "We just concentrate very hard and tell each other what we want to have happen." What has happened over the past six days, since their first injection of millions of umbilical cord blood stem cells by head physician, Dr. Yang Wanzhang,has been encouraging to the family. Perhaps a bit of an earlylightning strike. The legs of both girls are suddenly warm to the touch. Since the crash, their skin is more often chilled. Shannon can now sit up better in her chair and has more control over her breathing when propped up in a rehab contraption that gets her standing. In the past, robbed of stomach muscles, she would normally grow faint unless someone pushed on her belly. "I think my balance is better," she says. "I'd just like to see what happens next." Since she awoke from the first procedure -- they will both go through five before returning back to Canada in January --Erica has been daring her body to react differently. "The first thing I did (once awake) was to look at my hands to see if I could open them (wide)," Erica says, Santa hat on her head as she exercises her weak fingers on a grid of elastics. There was no sudden miracle. Her long fingers largely ignored her. Even when she looked down at her feet, and willed them hard to move, nothing out of her ordinary happened.But yesterday morning,they began to perspire. No one can remember that happening since she's been in her wheelchair -- a pushmodel because both sisters refuse to count on the electronic ones which collect dust at home. Which is why, early this morning, as their hometown of Port Perry sleeps, the Deering family will gather here in China, hold hands, and ask that lightning keeps striking.
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| Mise à jour le Vendredi, 22 Décembre 2006 01:43 |