Michell Gip

Age 17, USA


Diagnosis

Leber's Hereditary Optic Neuropathy



Condition Prior to Treatment

Leber's Hereditary Optic Neuropathy (LHON) is a genetic disorder that affects vision. LHON is caused by a mutation in the mitochondrial DNA, which is only passed on through the mother. The LHON mutation causes the degeneration of retinal ganglion cells and their axons. These cells are one of the first stops in the visual processing circuit in the brain. So, when they malfunction it leads directly to vision impairment. In general this leads to acute loss of central vision, meaning that LHON sufferers usually are not completly blind and have decent peripheral vision.

Michell's experience was fairly typical for people with LHON. She started noticing vision troubles around the time she was 10 years old. At first her doctors thought it was lazy eye and attempted to treat it by prescribing Michell glasses. When this had no effect, she was finally correctly diagnosed with Leber's.

As a hereditary disorder, LHON is also present in other members of Michell's family. Her mother only has minor vision troubles in her left eye, while her brother has similar symptoms to Michell. Concern for her family was one of the reasons that persuaded Michell to come to China for stem cell treatment. She explains,

"Since no one else with the same condition has come here before, I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out. I wasn't sure if it was going to work for me, but I wanted to do it anyways. So if I do it other people in my family can go, or other people with the same disease."

Treatment in China

Michell received 6 umbilical cord blood stem cell transplants. She also received physical therapy, occupational therapy, electric wave therapy and acupuncture.


Condition after Treatment

While in China Michell began to see some changes in her condition. Because her vision is only partly impaired it was hard for Michell to initially tell if her vision had improved. But she soon started to see some changes in her day to day life. In her own words,

"I'll notice things, like when I read my computer usually I read the magnification at a larger font. But now I notice that I have been putting it at a lower level and I can still read things. Or certain things like reading on my cell phone. I can read things that I hadn't been able to read before."