P A T I E N T  E X P E R I E N C E  –  S M A

NAME:  David Loredana 
    
COUNTRY:  Romania 

AGE: 8

DIAGNOSIS:  Spinal Muscular Atrophy - Kugelberg Welander (2002) and Secondary Pseudohypertraphy 

REASON FOR COMING FOR TREATMENT:  At 13 months old when David first started to learn to walk, her parents noticed that she was imbalanced and would fall down. From there her symptoms deteriorated and got worse year after the year. The doctors said that in a number of years, she would pass away.

TREATMENT: Umbilical cord stem cell and nerve growth factor injections with rehabilitation therapy

BEFORE THE TREATMENT (6/30/06): David had a hard time moving her legs. She could not walk and she had a hard time moving her legs while she was lying down. She could not get up from a lying position. She had no bladder control and would wet her pants often. Her back muscles were weak. She could lift a kilogram of weight only eight to ten times with her arms. She could not get up on her hands and knees or stand on her hands and knees. She had trouble moving her ankles. She had a very hard time moving her legs up off the bed. She could not dress her self. She could move her hands and her fingers but the strength in her hands was not enough to hold a paper or pencil. Her left leg was smaller than her right leg. Her left leg was very weak and her right leg was injured as well because she had to use it to compensate for the lack of strength in her left leg.

AFTER THE TREATMENT (7/23/06):

At the end of the month of treatment, she could sit up from a lying position by herself. She could move both her left and right legs more. Her back muscles were strengthened and she could stand on her hands and knees. Her arms became stronger and she could lift a kilogram of weight forty times. Her ankles became stronger. She could lift her legs.

See Videos: After1, After2, After3, After4, After5 

(7/28/06): The movements all became a little better including that she could now lift a one kilogram weight one hundred times.

See Videos: 2After1, 2After2, 2After3 

(11/26/06 – in Romanian with English translation): She could now tell when she had to go to the bathroom up to one or two minutes before she had to go. She could hold a pen, hold a telephone and could even write. Her leg became bigger and almost looked the same as the right leg. The right leg became better because now she would use both legs. She could stand much longer with support but still could not walk. David was most happy about the improvement in her bladder control and her hand movements but for her parents, the most important thing was that the disease stopped its progression.

See Videos: 3After1, 3After2, 3After3, 3After4, 3After5

China Stem Cell News Notes: As is quite common, when the patient left at the end of the treatment, they had some improvements but they were just the start. China Stem Cell News was able to follow up the patient to Romania months later to find out more about the new improvements after the treatment. This was the first foreign SMA treated with Beike Biotech’s stem cells that China Stem Cell News was able to follow and it was very encouraging that the stem cell treatments not only gave immediate benefits but continued to give more improvement throughout the next two ½ months after the patient returned home. Many times with degenerative diseases, we have seen that all of the improvements occur during and very soon after the treatment and then stop. The treatment for SMA seems similar to spinal cord injury where a majority of the improvements happen in the months after the treatment.

Since no one in David's family could speak English, they brought a friend of the family with for the treatment for translation. He is speaking in the first two series of videos. In the videos taken during our visit to Romania, we asked Iordache Razvan (Gabi), another patient, to do the translation for us.