Michaela's father, Cchris, would ask Michaela this question in relation to her posture. Was she relaxed? Was she holding her head up high? Michaela has Secondary Dystonia, a condition prompted by a difficult premature birth. Her muscles don't cooperate with her, tense and locked up.
She has received two cycles of stem cell transplants now. She and her father sat for interviews near the end of her second treatment. They also gave us home videos they had shot before and after her first treatment. You can watch those clips in the interview video above. We were struck by the new range of motion she displayed in the walker in 2010 against the stiff 2008 footage.
Head over to her full patient experience here for more information about her condition and her progress today.
After a fall from a bridge left him with a neck injury, Gabi was paralyzed from the neck down. When Gabi first came to China for treatment he could raise his arms half way to his shoulders. With no control of his stomach muscles he couldn't sit at all. Since that time he has pushed himself through adult stem cell treatments and physical therapy to recover as much of his lost abilities as he can.
With 30+ umbilical cord, cord blood and autologous stem cell transplants over the past six years there are few people in the world who have as much experience with the adult stem cell treatments available in China or the physical changes made possible by them.
Stem Cells Plus Physical Therapy
Through the course of his treatments he has seen his level of sensation drop again and again. Early feelings of "pins and needles" in once-unfeeling regions led to sensations of touch and temperature. He regained sweat function and bowel-and-bladder sensation.
His upper body control now allows him to operate a computer with his hands and perform complex operations.
You can also check out these spinal cord injury video interviews and patient experiences here at StemCellsChina by clicking on the images below for Brandon Harmison, Claire Marsh and Tamara Marquis.
"She pulled my hair this morning. That was a lot fun because she's never done that before. She's never grabbed something."
Angelica's mother, Roxanne
Surviving a Brain Injury
Angelica suffered a brain injury due to oxygen deprivation following a bad combination of blood pressure drugs and anesthetics. A tough break for a newborn. Her mother tells us "she was a very good baby to travel with" to China. Angelica just lay there clenched up without crying.
Following stem cell therapy in Qingdao Angelica expresses herself much more freely. She tells her mother what she likes and doesn't like. Her arms and legs have softened up a great deal. She's alert to people in the room and follows them around with her eyes. Roxanne said "so she developed a personality. She likes to be held."
Roxanne doubts that it was a stem cell placebo effect at work on her 9-month old saying "but I do know that I brought here a child that was not active, that was barely alive, that did nothing. And now I have a little girl."
Keri, 9 years old, got a write-up in the Belfast Telegraph. The family was reporting back after her first transplant in Qingdao. Only able to see the shapes of objects an inch from her face, her family reported back a jump to ten inches. Her mother sent out a thank you to all their supporters back home.
Doctors back home will likely demand independent verification of these results. They might chalk them up to the placebo effect, Chinese food or strenuous travel involved getting to China. We're just glad to hear she's seeing a little better today.
"Vision lost is vision lost", Ciska learned after she was diagnosed with glaucoma, "the best you can do is retain the vision you have." With eye drops in hand to keep the glaucoma from getting any worse she found her newly narrow vision created surprising challenges for her. Newly transplanted from South Africa to Shanghai, she felt uneasy suddenly surrounded by an enormous city full of people. Simply walking around required concentrated focus on the ground in front of her.
After a round of adult stem cell treatments she has reason to believe vision lost is not always vision lost. She quickly noticed an increase in brightness and soon noticed an expansion in her peripheral vision. While in the hospital she received a combination of IV, LP and retrobulbar injections of umbilical cord stem cells along with other routine therapies.
She wasn't the first glaucoma patient treated with adult stem cells. She's definitely not the last. Check out her new patient experience and video interview. Click on the links below for information and videos from patients and doctors with other disorder.
Joe Leone never thought he'd go to China. He never thought he'd be there alongside his father in Chinese hospitals. He'd never heard of any of the diseases doctors kept discussing like "Ataxia" and "Multiple System Atrophy". Joe quit his job to focus on his father and his father's health care.
Joe says "Concerning his quality of life, the one thing I'd have liked to take away from his was his constant dizziness." Patients with Ataxia or MSA often show symptoms more commonly associated with being drunk: dizziness, slurred speech, double vision, poor balance, etc. Check out this weeks video and check out videos from other stem cell patients facing MSA or Ataxia by clicking on the pics below. Check out StemCellsChina's Channel devoted to Ataxia conditions here.
