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NZST<br />
STEM CELLS IN CHINA Continued<br />
uniform matter in a specified place. In the case of a spinal<br />
cord injury to be able to open you up to the point of injury,<br />
scrape back the dead scar tissue which forms at the end of<br />
the break (one of the main reasons spinal cords don’t heal<br />
due to the scar tissue being allowed to form) then bridge<br />
the gap with a membrane and then fill that void with stem<br />
cells. Of course it is still unknown a little whether they<br />
will bridge the gap and then still perform the functions of<br />
the nervous system, but there is every belief they will and<br />
studies are slowly confirming that they will. Interestingly<br />
enough when I arrived back in New Zealand a week later<br />
I went and listened to Noela Vallis – Chairwoman from<br />
the Spinal Cord Society Charity which has been funding<br />
research into stem cells. This is exactly what she said. She<br />
has a team of doctors and scientists in Dunedin ready to<br />
start trials with exactly this procedure! Pending the ethics<br />
committee.<br />
Six weeks in China was a long way to be from home and<br />
family, two kids that we left behind but it was well worth<br />
the trip and experience. I did not quite get the results I<br />
wished for of course but I was not expecting to get up and<br />
walk. I had to try something as there is nothing else to try<br />
at home in the hope of a cure just the option of accepting<br />
it and learning to live with it. Something nobody could<br />
imagine to understand who is not in this situation whereby<br />
your life has been turned upside down and ended up far<br />
from the way you planned it. I did however leave China<br />
with a sense of satisfaction and the physio work was very<br />
beneficial. They unlike a lot of other countries are willing<br />
to try something that is moving in the right direction with<br />
minimal risk.<br />
Some kids there did gain back some of their eyesight.<br />
One young guy who had an incomplete break damaged<br />
through an operation did start to gain some feeling and<br />
movement back.<br />
Stem cells are the answer along with some more work of<br />
course but my question now is if there are no side effects<br />
or rejection given they are our own cells in some cases or<br />
stem cells from umbilical cords which is generally waste<br />
material and the cells are in an unidentified state not giving<br />
risk to rejection, why isn’t every spinal cord injury treated<br />
with stem cells at the time of the accident and given every<br />
chance of a recovery or some recovery.<br />
The less time anyone is left bound to a wheel chair the<br />
better, nobody deserves to be confined to one when there<br />
is every chance they may not have to be.<br />
There is everything to be gained by using stem cells now<br />
on humans with very little risk, so why are we waiting and<br />
denying those of half a chance?!
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