Doctors in Germany are hoping to have made a break through in the use of stem cell therapy, by significantly improving the condition of a young boy who had been left severally brain injured following a heart attack in November 2008.
The boy, known as L.B., suffered a cardiac arrest and was left paralysed with severe brain damage and in a vegetative state. His prognosis was described as ‘threatening if not hopeless’ by medics at the Department of Paediatrics at the Catholic Hospital Bochum.
However, nine week after the brain injury, doctors used frozen blood from his umbilical cord which had been stored since his birth, and L.B. started to undergo a dramatic improvement. Within a couple of months he was able to smile, sit and say and a few simple words, and 40 months after his treatment, he can now eat independently, form short sentences and walk with assistance.
Doctors believe the boy has been successfully treated, and that this should dispel ‘long-held doubts’ about the effectiveness of stem cell therapy.
This and other recent studies will offer new hope to people affected by severe brain injuries.
Read source article here http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2330338/Boy-cerebral-palsy-successfully-treated-using-stem-cells-taking-vegetative-state-walking-talking.html
