Adult stem-cell research has paid off for a Denver-area family.
Chloe Levigne is two years old now -- happy, walking, playing, and doing the things a child typically does, but it has not always been that way. Early in Chloe's life, her parents Jenny and Ryan Levigne noticed her right hand always clenched in a fist and that she tended to drag herself across the floor rather than crawl. Denver television station KCNC talked with the parents, and Jenny Levigne said doctors performed tests to figure out the problem.
"And we discovered she had a stroke in utero, which caused brain tissue to stop developing," Jenny explains.
Chloe's parents were devastated to discover their daughter had cerebral palsy. "Being a mom, I couldn't kiss it and make it better," Jenny adds.
At birth though, the Levignes paid for storage of umbilical blood stem cells. The cells were transported to Duke University where an experimental procedure was done using those cells -- and results were evident only two days later. "She began saying words that we had worked weeks and weeks to try to get her to say, one being her nickname 'Coco,'" Jenny says. "That was just music to our ears."
Chloe is about as close to normal as possible for a child her age, according to Jenny. Duke University has done only 40 of the procedures with adult stem cells, and most patients have seen positive results.
Contact: Charlie Butts
Source: OneNewsNow
Source URL: www.OneNewsNow.com
Publish Date: October 9, 2008
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