Doctor is the Patient for Stem Cell Treatment

By Jerry Steele - 2007-08-15 - Viewed 756 times. Find more articles like this in our Stem Cells and Cord Blood category.

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A doctor from Hawaii traveled all the way to Thailand to become a patient to treat his heart disease.

Dr. George Smith was treated for his heart condition with adult stem cell therapy for the 2nd time.

Dr.George Smith from Hawaii, who was used to treating patients, made the journey to Bangkok to become a patient to receive adult stem cell therapy for the second time. The first stem cell treatment was a success, but Dr. Smith was hoping for even more improvement the second time around.

Dr. Smith's story is not atypical. 'I had a massive coronary a little over five years ago and after three years began the descent into heart failure. I was on all the medicines; the alpha and beta blockers, the ace inhibitors, platelet tablets, fish oil and aspirin, but still going downhill and I was not a candidate for a heart transplant,' he said. 'My cardiologist said "Why not? I certainly have nothing else to offer you", and so I came to Bangkok in February of 2006. By April I was feeling quite well. I had no shortness of breath and my Six Minute Walk Test had already doubled. I had stopped my descent but wanted more,' he added.

After consulting the company's cardiologist in the U.S. Dr. Smith was clearly of the opinion that his myocardial muscle regeneration had outgrown the microcirculation in the heart. 'It was not the big blood vessels that were the problem, but the small ones. We felt that the second procedure with a catheter injection of stem cells directly into the coronary arteries would assist the regrowth of small blood vessels' he said. His local cardiologist agreed as all he could offer was further juggling of medications.

The patient and a medical friend were very impressed with the staff and the equipment at Bangkok Hospital. The equipment to give him a radioactive scan of his heart was state-of-the-art and the whole procedure took about half as long as it would have at home.

Dr. Smith is certain that stem cells to aid microvascularization will get him back to playing tennis. All he could do before the first procedure was walk the dog for a block and then sit down. He could read but was unable to do any of the things he enjoyed, like bike riding, tennis and working in the yard. 'My life was closing in on me. There comes a point where the medicines no longer give you a quality of life and, of course, heart transplants are reserved for the young. And so, you run out of slack and you run out of options,' he said.

Researching via the Internet and talking to patients who have had adult stem cell therapy is an option patients in heart failure should consider, according to this doctor. 'The improvements ex-patients will talk about are certainly not psychological because they will be able to give objective results like how far they can walk for six minutes and how much more blood is ejected in each contraction of the heart,' he counseled.

Jerry Steele is Outreach Director of Theravitae, a company that treats heart disease with adult stem cell therapy(Vescell). The company also maintains a blog - Stem Cell Therapy Blog.

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