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| Disabled Teen Still Showing Progress After Stem Cell Treatment |
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| Brain Injury | |||
| 23.03.2008 18:27 | |||
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There are no translations available. Source: Daily Herald  By Jeremy Duda More than a year after she received stem cell treatment in China, Tori Schmanski is still showing signs of improvement. Tim and Maria Schmanski aren't sure how much of their daughter's progress is due to that trip to the Beike Clinic in Hangzhou, China, but they believe it helped. Progress may be slow, but Tori is still making new strides all the time. • JUST LAST WEEK, TORI was able to complete an exercise her parents and therapists have been working on for a year -- she was able blow a whistle. It may seem like a small indicator of progress to most people, but to someone in Tori's condition it was a tremendous leap. "I started hearing this whistle ... and I thought it was my boy Brendan playing with a whistle. I was going to go tell him to be quiet, and then I went in there and it was her, so blow all you want," Tim said. Tori, now 17, suffered a debilitating brain injury in 2005 after a car wreck left her underwater for an extended period of time. The anoxic brain injury left her unable to talk, feed herself, use the bathroom or move around freely. In January 2007, Tori's parents took her to the Beike Clinic, where she underwent a month of treatment that included injections of more than 50 million stem cells. Stem cells have the potential to turn into different cell types in the body, and theoretically can divide without limit as long as the person is alive, acting as a "as a sort of repair system for the body," according to the National Institutes of Health's Web site. Tim said Tori is also showing progress in other ways. Since returning from Hangzhou, she has shown an increased ability to chew and swallow soft foods on her own. Extensive physical therapy has increased the range of motion in her elbows and knees. And she is improving at the recognition exercises her therapists conduct using flash cards and computer programs. Tori still recognizes her friends when they come to visit. And at a recent dance recital at Timpanogos High School, where her old dance team was performing, she was quickly able to pick her friends out of a crowd of dozens of strangers. At that dance recital, Tim took a photograph of Tori smiling. With limited use and control of her facial muscles, smiles don't come often. But lately they have been coming more frequently, and Tim hopes this is a sign of more to come. "It would be nice to have more of those smiles. She's trying," he said. Tim and Maria are hoping for even greater improvements in the long term. Tim looks forward to the day when Tori can eat by herself instead of using a feeding tube, and would like her to be able to form at least simple words, so she can tell people when she needs something. "Right now, Maria and I, we pretty much have to read her a lot of ways. She'll holler if she's uncomfortable or needs the channel changed, things like that," Tim said. "We would like her to tell us that she wants the channel changed." Another trip abroad for stem cell treatment -- it is not easily available in the United States -- is still a possibility, though Tim said he's waiting before making any commitments. New advances and breakthroughs in stem cell treatment are being made every day, he said, and he's waiting to see where those advances go. New clinics are also opening across the globe, Tim said, primarily in countries such as China, India and Ukraine that have fewer restrictions than the U.S. on the controversial treatment methods. Stem cell tourism is becoming a booming business for those countries. Some companies, such as Medical Tourism China Inc., even specialize in arranging travel packages for those seeking stem cell treatment abroad. Tim and Maria would like to see the kind of treatment offered at the Beike Clinic become more readily available in the U.S. In the U.S. now, research on human embryonic stem cell lines may only receive federal funding under specific circumstances, outlined by President George Bush in 2001: "removal of cells from the embryo must have been initiated before August 9, 2001, when the president outlined this policy; and the embryo from which the stem cell line was derived must no longer have had the possibility of developing further as a human being. The embryo must have been created for reproductive purposes but no longer be needed for them. Informed consent must have been obtained from the parent(s) for the donation of the embryo, and no financial inducements for donation are allowed," according to the NIH. Tim said he met Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, at a dinner before Christmas, and after thanking him for his attempts to push a bill through Congress that would provide federal funding for stem cell treatment, they both expressed their hope that the bill would be passed soon. Hatch called on President George Bush in 2007 to sign the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, but the president vetoed the bill. He vetoed a similar bill in 2005. Proponents of the research say embryonic stem cells -- which can turn into cells for many different kinds of human tissue -- offer the best chance of treating or curing many fatal and debilitating diseases, according to The Associated Press. But opponents, such as Bush, argue that research on the cells, which can be derived from human embryos created during in-vitro fertilization treatments, effectively destroys a human life. "He told me they're going to get it next year. They were so close [last] year," Tim said of Hatch. "I just know it's going to pass next year." For more information about stem cells, go to http://stemcells.nih.gov. Tori also has a Web site, http://pray4tori.com.
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