Gabi has been keeping us updated on his condition for several years now. We don't want to remove Gabi's reports or the earlier notes describing changes in his condition. After watching Gabi's interview above we recommend scrolling to the bottom of this page and working your way up to see the changes.
The interview was shot during Gabi's fourth round of stem cell treatments. Today he works at a Beike rehabilitation center in Romania, keeps up on his physical therapy regimen and is happy to field questions from anyone interested in his experience.
2008 Update -- Gabi's Personal Update Following His 3rd Treatment
The 3rd time I was in China, in October, 2007, in the Xiaoshan Hospital of Hangzhou. I staid there 6 weeks. The doctors made me 7 spinal stem cells injections.
Then I came back to Shenzhen to do only rehabilitation. I made rehabilitation 2 months. Per total, after 3 visits in China, about my recovery and improvements, I can tell you this. After the 1st, 2nd and 3rd treatment my movements with my hands are much better, I have more power in my hands and my body, too. I have new sensations all the way down to my feet, almost 90% (the skin sensations for touch and temperature are much better). I feel 100% my hands now. I feel something, like many needles (accupucture), in all my body, from up to down and from down to up?
I started to move a little my fingers, I can feel pain in first two fingers, I can feel a lot of heat in my legs, too, and after a while I can move my feet, but only 1-2 times. Now I can move (contract) my stomach muscles, I can stay on my feet 30-50 mins, but with assistance and support on my knees. I have more stability than before and when I am staying on my feet I can make a lot of moves with my hands and with my body, because my abdominal muscles and my back muscles are stronger than before.
When I stay lay down (on the bed) I can move a little my feet, twice a day. I can hold my urine for five-seven or 10 minutes (sometimes) before I have to go. My sensibility is well improved, I can feel better my legs and all my body, for temperature, pain and touch (skin) sensation, too. Something like 1000 needles is moving all the time inside of my body. Now my stability is much better than before, I can stay sitting down on the bed without any support, and if my mother push forward my legs I can move my legs to come back near the bed. So, now I started to move my legs, even if it is a little, but it is a start. My triceps muscles started to work, too.
I hadn't any secondary effects after the treatment, only good effects. In the hospitals, I had very good rehabilitation, accupuncure, OT (occupational therapy) and PT (physical therapy).
I made bone marrow transplant (BMT), too. About bone marrow stem cell injection I can tell you this. Bone marrow stem cell injection was the best injection in my oppinion. Stem cells injections helped me a lot and there are very good for me, too. But bone marrow stem cell injection with stem stem cells, together, helped me very much after injection. I mean, after bone marrow stem cell injection I could feel all the sensations much better than before, more natural. Such as, I could feel my fingers, my legs and my feet much normal than before. The sensations entered into my body more natural and I had the feeling like I was a normal man after one night sleeping. I had the feeling like this: if you put water into a flower, that water goes into all that places deep inside. With me happened the same. I could feel all the sensations very deep inside and into all the places. All the sensations were more stronger. My movement at my legs now is much better than before.
My sensibility now was well improved and more faster after bone marrow stem cell injection. So, I am sure that bone marrow stem cell injection helped me a lot. I am sure and confident that after a while I will start to have new movement at my legs too, after bone marrow stem cell injection. I am very happy with that.
In January 2008 I had one surgery in Qingdao. I needed to do this surgery because my spinal cord had a compression on C5-C6 level and I need to decompress that zone to have a quicklier recovery. In the same time with the surgrey the doctors put the stem cells inside of my spinal too.
It took about 5 hours and half but the surgery was successfully. After the surgery I had good improvments, such as: now I can make the differences between stool and urine and I have a little control on my urine, and 100% coutrol on my stool, but the most important is that I feel it nomal.
Another improvement is that my reflexes at my legs and foot came back and now I can move my legs better than before. The spasticity is more lower than before, my body is more relax than before and I start to move my triceps and abdominal muscles, my trunk stability is well improved now.
The sensations in my body became to normal and now I feel like a normal people. I feel very happy with this, thanks to God, the surgery, the rehabilitation and stem cells helped me very much.
Of course, all my body is more powerful and stronger than before, and I am very happy with these improvements.
I am very confident that in the future I will have more improvements and I hope I will walk again by myself soon .
After the surgery, we came back to Shenzhen for another 5 months to do rehabilitation. Before we came back home we came back to Qingdao again, in June, where we staid 2 months, and I made another 4 stem cells injections, acupuncture and rehabilitation. Then in August 2008, we came back home to Romania.
See Gabi's first clips combined and subtitled into one video (and streaming) on Vimeo and YouTube.
REASON FOR COMING FOR TREATMENT: In 1995, when Razvan was in high school, he had a terrible accident when diving into a river. He was paralyzed from the neck down. The only thing he could move at that point was his eyes. Within 24 hours, he was operated on by Dr. Gh. Panoze. Since 1995, he has had daily rehabiliation (kinetotherapy, physiotherapy, massage, and accupuncture) at the Medical Physical Recovery Section of Poiana Campina Hospital.
TREATMENT: Umbilical cord stem cell and nerve growth factor injections with rehabilitation therapy. START OF TREATMENT: February 25, 2006
He could move all parts of his arms except for his fingers. He could raise his hands up almost to shoulder height. He could stand up on his feet with support. He had sensation down to his chest (almost 50% for touch and temperature). He could hold his urine for a few seconds before he had to go.
AFTER THE TREATMENT: (March 31, 2006): See Videos- Movement, Bladder, Sensation, Sensation Returns, Improvements1, Improvements2. Razvan has new sensation all the way down to his feet. He has some sensation in his feet where he had none before. He can move his fingers repeatedly and now he can feel pain in the first two fingers on each arm. He has warm sensations in his legs where there was no sensation before and after awhile he can move his feet but only slightly. He can contract his stomache muscles which he could not do before. At times he can hold his urine for five to seven minutes before he has to go and his bowel function has improved.
UPDATE by e-mail from Iordache (June 8, 2006): It has been eight weeks since I returned home and my situation has continued to improve. My hands can move much better, I have more power in my hands and in my legs as well. Now I can move my fingers every day for at least ten times per day. I can stay on my feet for one to two hours with assistance and support for my knees. When I am on my feet, I have more stability than before I can make a lot more movement with my hands and with my body because my abdominal muscles and my back muscles are stronger than before. When I lay down on the bed I can move my feet a little and do this twice a day. My sensation has improved and I can feel my legs and all my body now. I can even feel warm and cold. I still feel that sensation like there are thousands of needles moving in by body all the time. Now I can control my urine for 10 minutes and the sensation for both urine and stool is much better. Generally, my entire body is more powerful than before.
Gabi has come back for his second set of treatments, six months after his last treatment. He felt that after his first treatment, he had 20% improvement in his condition overall and hopes that he will have another 20% improvement after this treatment.
Before Gabi's first treatment, he could move his arms up half way up to his shoulders. After the first treatment he was able to move them up to his to shoulders and he could do exercises with .5 kg weights. At the start of his second treatment, he could lift 2 kilogram weights to his shoulders. He used to be able to lift his arms about 20 to 30 times without weights but then he would have to rest for an hour. Now after lifting his arms with weights, he only needs a minute or so to rest before he does it again.
For bladder control, before the first treatment, Gabi could only hold his urine for a couple seconds. Then at the end of the first treatment, on average, he could hold his urine for 2 or 3 minutes on average. At the start of the second treatment, he could hold it for nine or ten minutes. Gabi rated his bladder control before the first treatment as 0 and then before the second treatment as a 3 on a scale of 1 to 10.
Gabi did not have any movement in his abdominal muscles before the first treatment. Before the second treatment, Gabi rated his abdominal muscles as a 0, 1 after the first treatment and a 3 at the begining of the second treatment. He felt his triceps were a 0 before the first treament and a 3.5 before the second treatment.
Before the first treatment, Gabi could not sit for more than second without help. After the first treatment he could only stay sitting for a few seconds. At the start of the second treatment, if he was in a comfortable situation, he could sit for ten to fifteen minutes.
Before the first treatment, Gabi could not move his feet. After the first treatment, he could still not move his feet. But after hard work for the next 2 months, one day he could finally move his feet. He could not move them every time he tried but if he tried 100 times, he could move them 12 times.
He feels happy about this because it was the first time since the accident 10 years ago that he could move his feet at all. From the time he could first do it until two months later, he felt he had a 50% increase in his ability to do it.
In terms of finger movements, Gabi could not move his fingers before the first treatment. After the first treatment, he could move his fingers but would have to use his entire body to get the strength to do it and the movement was a combination of muscle spasm and strength. At the start of the second treatment, Gabi could move his fingers by using only his forearms and hand muscles and there was no muscle spasm involved.
