Girl with Cerebral Palsy Responds Well to Cord Blood Injection
October 02, 2008 5:16 PM
by Emily Coakley
An experimental trial at Duke University in which a child was injected with her own umbilical cord blood seems to have yielded positive results.
Parents Call Toddler's Progress 'Remarkable'
After receiving an infusion of her own cord blood, a two-year-old Colorado girl with cerebral palsy has made great strides, her parents told CBS4 Denver.
Chloe Levine received the infusion as part of a Duke University experiment in which doctors were injecting children with blood from their own umbilical cords, "to possibly heal and repair damaged brain tissue," the station reported. Umbilical cord blood contains stem cells, which scientists feel hold great potential for medicine.
Her parents told CBS that they noticed changes within a few days of the procedure, which took place in May.
"She began saying words we had worked weeks and weeks to try and get her to say, one being her nickname, 'Coco' and that was music to our ears," Jenny Levine said, according to CBS.
This summer, Ryan Levine, Chloe's father, told Fox News that she's made a 50 percent recovery.
The banking of blood from a baby's umbilical cord is a growing trend, but some worry that companies use emotional and misleading information to persuade parents.
According to Fox News, "Cerebral palsy refers to any one of a number of neurological disorders that appear in infancy or early childhood and permanently affect body movement and muscle coordination but don't worsen over time."