Langley, B.C., resident Nicole Morris gave birth to twin girls, Kaylee and Savannah, two-and-a-half years ago. Born premature, Savannah developed a brain injury from lack of oxygen that left her with cerebral palsy.

The condition can cause severe motor and mental impairment. But preliminary research out of the United States has suggested that injecting children with umbilical cord stem cells might help mitigate effects of cerebral palsy.

Now Savannah’s parents say they want to try the experimental therapy they hope will make her move normally, opting to pay thousands of dollars to receive the treatment that has yet to be proven in clinical trials.

Read more at CTV News.

However, WINK News also spoke to some of Dr. Grekos patients who credit him for saving their lives.

Read more WINK News.

Charlie Knuth came to Amplantz Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis during December, and began undergoing treatments to help reverse the affects of epidermolysis bullosa, which left him with open sores and bruises all over his body.

“I’m amazed, I mean every time I look at him I don’t know what to say,” says Charlie’s mom Trisha.

After the transplant, Charlie seemed to be making a speedy recovery until he managed to get a blood infection which happened as a result of his immune system being compromised by chemotherapy.

Read more at WXOW.com

“Savanna suffers from cerebral palsy and cannot walk or crawl,” said Morris.

Savanna suffered cerebral palsy after she and twin sister Kaylee were born three months premature at Royal Columbian Hospital in August 2008.

A baby brother, Ryder, was born at full term in September.

“He’s chubby and big and so cute,” said the 28-year-old Morris.

She plans to use stem cells from Ryder’s umbilical cord to help his older sister’s condition improve.

Morris did research online and saw a program on U.S. TV about successful clinical trials at Duke University in North Carolina.

But because Savanna was premature, she didn’t qualify.

Through an Internet cerebral palsy support group, Morris contacted Dr. David Steenblock, who claims to have successfully treated the illness with stem cells in California.

The family plans to fly to California next month for five days for the $24,000 U.S. treatment at Steenblock’s Mission Viejo clinic, north of San Diego.

Read more at The Province.

In 1994, the 55-year-old Frankford native suffered a massive stroke that left him quadriplegic. Since then Johnston, who cannot walk nor move any other parts of his body but his right arm, has been among the youngest residents living at Hallowell House, a long-term care residence in Picton, and for the last five years at Hastings Manor in Belleville.

Although Johnston can barely speak, his niece Bonny Gordon said her uncle’s mind hasn’t been affected by the stroke.

“He always says that he is quadriplegic, not paralysed,” said Gordon. “A few years after he had his stroke his wife left him and took all his assets, leaving him with no choice but living in long term care residences, away from his son and two grandsons. For the last few years, Mark has been researching for stem cell treatments all over the world.”

Johnston knows he will never walk again and only wishes specialized treatments like stem cell, offered at high costs at Dr. David Steenblock’s Personalized Regenerative Medicine clinic in Mission Viejo, Calif., would help him reposition himself when he is siting in his wheel chair or lying on his bed.

Read more at The Belleville (Canada) Intelligencer.

Last spring, 50-year-old Steve Discher, military veteran, AECL employee, husband, father and grandfather was told he had an aggressive form of Alzheimer’s disease and had at best six to eight years to live.

His memory had already deteriorated to the point that he couldn’t write, remember what year it was, remember how to write out the numbers on a clock face or talk with friends and family.

Read the full article at The Daily Observer (Canada).

Knuth, who lives in Darboy, travels to Minneapolis Saturday for the long-awaited operation his family fought hard to get.

“Charlie is excited to go,” said Trisha Knuth, his mother.

Charlie has the life-threatening disease epidermolysis bullosa, better known as EB. He was born without the gene that binds skin together. As a result, his skin blisters frequently, inside and out.

There is no cure for EB, but doctors hope the bone marrow stem cell transplant will make Charlie’s skin stronger.

The state Medicaid office initially refused to pay for the treatment, which could top $1 million. But after Trisha Knuth contacted lawmakers for help and the community rallied around Charlie, the state relented.

Now the Knuths are gearing up for the long medical battle ahead.

Read the full article at the Post Crescent.

The treatment consists of removing red cells and combining a concentration of platelets and progenitor cells with calcium and thrombin. The final mixture looks like Jell-O, and the application process takes about 15 minutes.

The process was tested out on patient Kaye Adkins, who had an open wound on her foot that weeks of treatment — including a skin graft — had failed to heal. Adkins said she initially thought they were going to inject something into her foot and was excited to hear it was, instead, a spray that would be applied during a second graft.

This time, the graft was successful, and the wound healed.

“I had never heard of anything like that,” she said. “It was just amazing.”

Dr. Amalia Cochran of the University of Utah Health Care Burn Center said, in Adkins’ case, as in others, bacteria must be removed before the spray can be used.

Read full article at Deseret News.

Doctors in Covington, La., are hoping that they are taking the first step, to one day help people with spinal cord injuries walk again.

Now medical history may be made right here in our own backyard.

Marine Cpl. Matt Cole, 29, did two tours of duty in Iraq. He’s been a crew chief for an amphibious assault vehicle and a gunner for a troop transport vehicle. But his second tour was cut short on May 17, 2005.

“We were attacked with mortars and rockets by insurgents on our base. The first mortar that dropped exploded behind me, which sent shrapnel into my back and damaged my spinal cord,” said Cole.

Cole was paralyzed and also had a collapsed lung. His platoon was told he probably would not live.

“I couldn’t get enough oxygen in, so they pretty much wrote me off when they put me on the Medivac chopper. It was little about an hour from the time I was injured to the time they flew me out,” said Cole.

Read the full article at WWLTV.com

New data from this trial were presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions by co-principal investigator Emerson C. Perin, M.D., Ph.D., medical director of the Stem Cell Center at the Texas Heart Institute.

Heart disease is the leading killer in the U.S. and Europe. No-option chronic myocardial ischemia patients make up approximately 6 percent of coronary heart disease (CHD) patients worldwide and suffer from one of the most serious conditions among heart failure patients. In the United States, more than one million patients are in this class, with a 10 year mortality rate exceeding 20 percent and an annual healthcare cost of more than $10 billion.

Read full article at StemCellResearchNews.com.