I’ve used this blog in the past to share a number of stories about the exciting potential of Stem Cell Therapy. Here is another. My goal has been to get my readers to imagine that if this simple, safe, natural procedure can restore someone’s eyesight after 10 years of legal blindness, what it can do for more common pain conditions and injuries. I’ve seen it work again and again at New Jersey Pain Care Specialists using stem cells harvested from the Adipose tissue in the patient’s “love handles”/abdomen. I hope more and more people can be convinced of the effectiveness of stem cells before relying on dangerous painkillers or turning to invasive surgery.
I found this article online at the Tennessean.com. It was written by Doug Oliver, the man who regained his sight after trying Stem Cell Therapy. Like me and countless other physicians, he strongly believes that regenerative medicine has great potential, and should not be at the center of a political battle. He literally “sees” its success every day.
Rare form of macular degeneration
Mr. Oliver writes: I have a disease called malattia leventinese. It’s a very rare, inherited form of macular degeneration. I’ve been legally blind for about 10 years, but in recent months, I now can see. Yes, really. Let me explain.
My vision had become so poor that I had to be 20 feet away from a Starbucks sign in order to see it. And that was my good eye. My bad eye would see an object at 20 feet that most people could see from as far as 2,000 feet away.
The verdict of the experts was constant. There was no known cure, no treatment and no hope of recovery for a person with my disease. The best-case scenario would be that the damage would level off at about age 50. If and when that happened, I would at least know what my world would look like while I lived out my later years. I had no concept of what it would look like when I walked out of the doctor’s office. Within a year, though, I learned. No more driving, no more seeing the faces of my grandchildren, no more running, no more reading books, no more feeling safe, no more $90,000-a-year IT job.
But I’m writing this today because that has changed, and there’s new legislation in the U.S. that’s going to pave the way for those changes to finally stick.
Thank goodness for SCOTS
A year ago last February, I discovered the Stem Cell Ophthalmology Treatment Study (SCOTS), registered with the National Institute of Health, conducted by a researcher in Fort Lauderdale. The study is perfecting a medical procedure that has actually been available in some form for almost a decade to individuals living in other countries.The researcher uses the human body’s own adult (not fetal or embryonic) bone marrow stem cells to treat, repair or even regenerate damaged retinas and optic nerves.
I applied for participation. SCOTS said yes, and I was selected for the most aggressive arm of the treatment.
Since the NIH will approve a clinical trial, but only selectively fund patient access expenses, there is no funding for people like me. So I had to raise the money myself to cover the costs, with the help of a GoFundMe campaign, and many other people who said yes with their love and their cash.
On Aug. 18, I entered a state-of-the-art surgical suite and discovered what my funds really covered: four board-certified specialists, an ophthalmologist, an anesthesiologist, an orthopedic surgeon and an interventional radiologist — and their respective teams.
My own bone marrow was aspirated from my hip, spun in a special centrifuge to isolate the stem cells known to change into retinal cells, added back to the bone marrow components that protect and nourish the process, put in a needle and injected around and in my eyes — an hour-and-a-half gig. Then I was in my wife Ann’s care.
More than just eyesight
And now, only nine months later, I’m 20/40 in one eye and 20/30 in the other. I received my Tennessee driver’s license in December. Since then, I’ve not only gained eyesight but also a great deal of insight.
I’m honored to have had calls and letters from all over the world asking about my experience regaining eyesight.
As I’ve communicated with people who have stories like mine, there soon emerges a pattern of sadness and frustration. Not just with the time spent being blind, but with time passing and a sense that their hope is being manipulated — that phrases like “There’s more work to be done” and “We expect a cure within three to five years” are somehow no longer completely true.
Like me, they’ve been told they are blind and their condition has no treatment, no cure and no hope. And now that they’ve been exposed to current, new and effective options, they soon realize those options are available only at a cost, and often only in other countries.
They worry, like Ann and I did, about having to mortgage the house to travel abroad and pay for treatments they feel should be available by now in their home country.
My story and experiences have caused me to now believe that 21st-century cures will be achieved partly because they, like me, have become patients who know what questions to ask, and to whom.
They can go to online library sources and read the same medical research journals our doctors do. They know how to look up the advances other countries have enjoyed over the last decade. They reverse-engineer the stem cell horror-story cases to see how old they are, or whether the problems still exist. They talk about legislation, too.
My sight was not restored in spite of “unregulated” cellular therapy. It was restored because of unregulated cellular treatment, offered by a knowledgeable physician who was free to practice medicine, in accountability to his professional board.
Kudos
I’m thankful and grateful for the grace that has been given me. I applaud Senators Alexander, Murray, Kirk and Collins and former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, their teams and supportive colleagues, and the Bipartisan Policy Council for properly recognizing the miracle that is regenerative medicine, and for realizing that this time we need to get it right.
I thank them for understanding that doctors need a squeeze-free regulatory environment that allows them to practice their best personalized medicine. And that policies of such gravity for the U.S. and the health of its people should not become a battle to be won, but rather a symphony to be played.
If you suffer from tennis chronic or debilitating tennis elbow, knee pain, shoulder pain, Achilles injuries, degenerative disc disease and sports or overuse injuries, call NJ Pain Care Specialists for an evaluation. This simple outpatient or in-office procedure is quick and relatively painless, and it can change your life.
Unfortunately, at the present time, Stem Cell Therapy is not covered by medical insurance.
