First Collective Interview of Adult Stem Cell Patients with Successful Outcomes

I read with great interest an announcement that a few successful adult stem cell therapy patients would be gathering in Washington to share their experiences and show how they have improved.

Many patients are tremendously shy when discussing their condition and I think its marvellous that they are willing to come forward. No doubt there may be a political slant to organizing this event (given that Senator Sam Brownback from Kansas and Dr. David Weldon who is from the House of Representatives will be giving keynote speeches), but if it is to promote awareness and funding for stem cell clinical trials and to further understanding of applications, I'm all for it.

There were 5 featured speakers:

Jacki Rabon- Stem cells used for treatment in her spinal cord (see previous entry)

Cathy Pell- Daughter Abby received cord blood treatment for cerebral palsy and used her own cord blood stem cells

Dr. David Foege- Heart failure patient who underwent Theravitae's stem cell therapy developed by Dr. Amit Patel in Pittsburgh

Mary Schneider- Son Ryan treated with his own cord blood when he was 2 for cerebral palsy at Duke University (same as Abby)

Stephen Sprague- Was diagnosed with CML 10 years ago and used cord blood stem cells for a transplant source and is well today

Apparently they shared phenomenal stories of success in their treatments and encourage more adult stem cell work to be done.

"To date, embryonic stem-cell research has failed to produce one successful treatment," said Paul Chaim Schenck, director of the national pro-life action center. "Conversely, adult and cord-blood stem-cell research has yielded over 65 successful treatments, including curing diabetes in some patients."

Interestingly, the session was organized rather innovatively as a wine-tasting session sponsored by a company called BOGO wines. Its owner, Bill Schneeberger is a Catholic from Ohio who donates $2 (USD) from every bottle sold to adult stem cell research. Check out the follow-up article here, it's got some interesting insights to the event but not much on the patients themselves.

I would have loved to be there to listen and ask them questions. If anyone reading this blog attended the session, I'd really appreciate if you'd share the information with me.