" The treatment I received at the hospital was exceptional. Everyone was so caring, gentle, and kind. I have never experienced the wonderful care at a hospital like yours!! "
Note: Timea's first treatment was at four months and finished in January. She then came back for a second treatment in May at eight months old. Her third treatment began at eleven months and the fourth at twenty-one months. NAME: Timea Grescó COUNTRY: Hungary
DIAGNOSIS: Perinatal stroke – with brain damage on the left side and an enlarged ventrical on the right.
REASON FOR COMING FOR TREATMENT: She was born three months prematurely when her mother’s blood pressure reached 200/140 and had to have the baby in order to save both of their lives. The baby was born on July 16th, 2005 and suffered a perinatal stroke – left side with bleeding and the right side resulting in an enlargement of her ventrical. She had significant brain damage. Following the birth, the baby had a shunt put into her head due to hydrocephalus on October 18th, 2005. At the time of entry into the hospital, she was able to move all of her limbs with the right limbs having less strength than the left. The doctors, however, predicted that when she got older, she would have both physical impairment as well as some mental impairment.
TREATMENT: Umbilical cord stem cell and nerve growth factor injections with rehabilitation therapy START OF TREATMENT: November 28, 2005. Second treatment began May 5th, 2006
See Timea's clips combined and subtitled into one video (and streaming) on Vimeo and YouTube.
BEFORE THE TREATMENT: Baby was constantly crying, did not smile, could not follow objects and was generally unaware of her outside surroundings. The strength in her left limbs were not as strong as those in her right limbs.
Pictures Below are from before the treatment.
EMAIL FROM TIMEA'S MOTHER (August 8th, 2006):
We have been back more than a month now from the second stem cell treatment in China and here is the summary for all the changes we have seen so far. The changes started after the third injection this time but now we see more and more improvements. Now Timi is more than 1 year with an adjusted age of 10 months. Now she can turn from tummy to back and from back to tummy as well. She can sit without support for some seconds, she is continuously improving in this. Her head control has improved further. Now she holds her head up is really looking really into people's eyes. Mentally she started to be interested in toys but her most favorite pastime is toe-sucking. She is a really funny girl, smiling and laughing a lot and she speaks all day in her own language.
Since two weeks before there is an improvement in her babbling. She started to say some syllables, like 'dadada, bababab, apa'. And we see now new improvement in her attention. In June in China they did a kind of intelligence test with her and the result was that she was at the level of 6-month baby. The next challenge for her is to crawl which hopefully one day she will be capable to do. So we are satisfied with the results.
Finally the only one thing she cannot do which I hoped for from this treatment is crawling. However, it might be a very ambitious wish from her considering her damage. So, she faces approximately 5 months delay in her development. However the good thing is that she shows continuous improvements and we see new things week by week.
Now after the second treatment, I am certain in that these injections can continue to help her development since she had similar levels of improvements during and after the first treatment. This could not happen by chance as she started to do a lot of new things in the three-four months following the injections. All of the doctors who saw her were satisfied and we are going to travel back in October to have new treatment.
AFTER TREATMENT TWO (June 19th, 2006):
Timea had improvement in five areas. 1) She began to play with toys which she had not done before 2) She improved in her ability to turn from her stomach to her back 3) She could push herself up to raise. 4) She improved in her ability to sit up without support as she could now put her hands by her waist to hold herself up 5) She now holds her head up instead of keeping it down to look around when someone is talking to her.
Judit, her mother, said that after she returned home after the last treatment, the improvements continued until March but in the last two months before coming for the second treatment, she did not get a lot of improvement. When she returned for the second treatment, the improvements started again two to three weeks after the start of the treatment. Therefore she feels sure that the improvements are related to the treatment.
AFTER TREATMENT THREE (October 10th, 2006): Timea has come back for her third treatment. Since she left after her second treatment, she had further improvements that her mother was happy with and so she came for her third treatment. Since the last treatment, Timea's head position has improved more as she holds her head up and she is looking at people's eyes. Her attention has improved as she now watches people when they are having a conversation with each other. She can now sit without support and push herself up when she is on her father's stomache. In the last two weeks before the treatment, Timea started to understand what the parents say. For example, when they ask her to clap, she will clap. She started to speak and can say 'mother' and 'father'. Her right arm which was the more affected side lost the muscle spasticity it had before and is now as strong as the the left. Again the changes continued for three to four months after the last treatment. The rehabiliation doctors are happy with Timea's development and feel that compared with other brain injured children of the same severity, her development is above expecation.
Timea at 11 months
Timea at 11 months
After Treatment Four (02 August 2007):
Timea returned for her fourth treatment course following successful results from the previous treatments. During the period between the third and fourth courses, Timea has exhibited improvements in both physical and mental areas. For example, she can now sit up and remain in a seated position without assistance. Her leg muscles show an increase in strength as she can now move from a crouching position to a standing position, although she still needs to use her arms for additional strength. The early video of her fourth treatment therapy sessions show her rise to a standing position, with most movement coming from her waist. Later, with help from nursing staff, she can rise using her legs. With minimal assistance, she can bear most of her own weight when standing. Her new abilities are very encouraging, and she is now learning to walk with the assistance of a baby walker. In terms of Timea's mental improvements, her understanding and communication has increased, and she can now respond correctly to commands such as, 'Do this,' or 'Do that.' The attention she pays to her family and the nursing staff has grown and she is more comfortable interacting with them.
EMAIL FROM MOTHER OF TIMEA TO USER GROUP JANUARY 31, 2006
Note: Text edited for grammar and spelling, content not changed.
I would like to share my experience with you and I hope I can help you in this way and it gives the HOPE to you and to your children as well.
I participated in a stem-cells treatment in China, organized by Beike Boitech Company in a Hospital in Shen Zhen. They are new on the market, however they are very professional and the service they provided us was very good.
Originally it was planned that my daughter who is 6 months old now, but her adjusted age is only 3 months would get 4 injections (one/week). However her CT showed that she is a very serious case, so the doctors suggested 8 injections. So this is the reason I was away since I stayed in China for 2 months.
My daughter got the injections through vein since she has a hydrocefalus as well as a result of stroke so they were afraid to give through her head because of the shunt. The treatment is not only about the stem-cells injections, but it also includes a rehabilitation program as well which means daily massage and acupuncture for the adults. My daugter is too young for acupuncture, so she got only daily massage which also helped really her movement.
At the end they did a test which showed that my daughter now at the level of her adjusted age, so she can be considered as a normal 3 months old baby based on her activity.
I was informed the results could only be seen from two to six months later, however we already have seen some results.
The main improvements which we have noticed so far:
She has become a very active baby that makes a lot of sounds. To be honest our pediatric doctor visited us today and was really suprised about her and she did not believe her eyes. She was very happy with the improvement and said it is a wonder and she seems to be a really promising baby.
Now she uses her fingers a lot and she can grab and play with rattle even with the bad, affected hand.
She smiles a lot and she can smile back to me even through a mirror.
Her head control has improved a lot, but of course there is still room for improvement.
I have to do with her a lot of phisycal exercises every day. Before the treatment, her reaction was only crying, now she enjoyes it really and smiles during the exercises. With a help she started to do sg which is similar to crawling.
She can sit without support if she holds my hands. So she holds my hands, not me. So she has the power in her arms to hold herself with help.
According to the suggestion, if we see improvement and the results continuing, we will go for treatment again in six months.
To be honest the last half year of our life was a nightmare with a lot of unfortunate things happening to us, but during this 2 months I was happy since I gained some hope to help my daughter.
All the doctors we met are very nice, intelligent and kind and they are really care about helping patients. They are happy only in that case if they see results. So they did their best for my daughter and I feel really lucky to meet such nice and helpful people.
December 10th Baby Intelligence Test
January 10th Baby Intelligence Test (One Month into Treatment)
Email: judit@safecase.hu
UPDATE (July 11 2007): News since Timea's third treatment, from her mother Judit
Dear all,
I have not written for a long time as I have been busy with my new-born baby, Melinda, who was born on the 5th of March this year. She was nearly full-term, and is a happy and healthy baby.
I am writing today to share with you the improvements we have seen in Timea, my 2 year-old daughter, who went to China last October for stem-cell treatment. She has improved a lot since October, more so than after her previous treatments. She has changed from a baby to a mischievous little girl who loves to do naughty things!
Her biggest improvements have been physical. She can now sit up on a stool or on the ground herself, without any support. She can also crawl on her tummy. Unfortunately she cannot crawl on her knees yet as her thigh muscles are still too weak. However, her balance has improved greatly, and she can stand up by holding on to objects around her (such as the bar of her playpen) for support. All spasticity has gone from her elbows, and her arm muscles are much stronger.
She has also improved a lot mentally. She understands a lot of things and she can follow simple commands and instructions - for example she can now point to parts of her body if you ask. She's learning more all the time! There hasn't been any significant improvement in her speech yet unfortunately, and her hands are still weak which makes it hard for her to manipulate things. Despite this however she shows much more interest in toys and objects now.
Her third treatment began at eleven months and the fourth at twenty-one months.
