Cavan General Hospital Gives in on Harvest of Cord Blood Stem Cells

Hurray for Catherina MacCauley's newborn baby!

Caven General Hospital which had previously refused its patient's request to collect umbilical cord blood stem cells has given in to media and industry pressure and agreed to permit its own hospital staff to perform the collection procedure after a confidential waiver was signed. The baby has already had its cord blood stem cells collected and banked.

The reason stated for not permitting the procedure in the first place was that hospital management was worried about liability should the procedure fail.

There are 2 salient points which I'd like to highlight here:

1) The converse liability of not permitting a patient a choice to bank- could the mother sue the hospital if her baby was diagnosed subsequently with a condition which its own cord blood stem cells could be used to treat? (..and possibly died as a result of not having the stem cells for therapy?)

2) I'm surprised that the bank Ms. MacCauley chose did not have a waiver already prepared for the doctor and hospital to sign. (StemLife has this in place for all doctors, hospital staff and everyone involved in the collection. Umbilical cord blood is not collected in the event where the safety of mother or baby is compromised)

That lawyers and risk management specialists had to be consulted on something which is pretty routine (cord blood is currently collected for neo-natal testing for G6PD and TSH), which poses no significant harm to mother or child (proven in probably almost a million babies cord blood stem cells collected and banked worldwide over the last 17 years) and with support from their own staff would take so much to achieve.

Having said that though, its always about education and whether this topic touches a personal and compassionate nerve. Many articles cite the minimal chances of use and some doctors cite these articles to their patients. But while a balanced view must be presented to every patient, so should its corresponding opportunity for patients to bank their babies stem cells.

The chances may be slim for cancer (last published estimates several years ago are 1:20,000, but I seem to have many friends whose family members have had cancer so I think this statistic is out of date) but think about the other uses which may come online for the healing and repair of damaged tissue (accidents? sports injuries? infection related injuries?) or for degenerative conditions such as heart, liver, joints or eyes. In these cases, drugs or surgery can help reduce the pain and prolong life, but once the damage is done, most patients are never able to return quite to the lifestyle they had before the onset of the symptoms. It is this return to active life that stem cells aims to achieve in conjunction with current modes of therapy.

Most of us are likely and lucky to be born healthy, but it is down to our own pre-emptive action to stay healthy which is what keeps us productive and alive.