Some of the most enthusiastic proponents of cord blood banking are families who have firsthand knowledge of its benefits, and the Levine family is no exception. In a one-year follow up story, Dr. Manny Alvarez of Fox News follows the progress of Chloe Levine, a girl with cerebral palsy who was treated with her own newborn stem cells.
When Chloe was one year old, her parents, Jenny and Ryan, received news that she had suffered from an in-utero stroke before birth, resulting in a diagnosis of right-sided Hemiplegic Cerebral Palsy. Fortunately the Levines had banked Chloe’s cord blood with CBR, which allowed her to undergo an infusion of her own stem cells as part of a study at Duke University.
Prior to her treatment, Chloe held her hand in a tight fist, was not holding a bottle, couldn’t push herself up, and was not able to crawl like other babies her age, instead shuffling across the room. Within four days of Chloe’s infusion, the Levines began to see dramatic changes in their little girl. Chloe, who was nearly paralyzed on her right side, began to lose the rigidity and stiffness in her body, could lift both arms over her head, and began running and jumping. Today, Fox News reports that Chloe’s progress is still evident: "Her life is completely normal, she doesn’t drag her right foot, she can use her right hand," Jenny Levine said. "She rides a bike, a scooter…we’re taking her skiing this year. She’s fabulous."
Dr. Joanne Kurtzberg, professor of pediatrics and pathology at Duke University who is conducting the cerebral palsy study, said she “does not know how long the effects of cord blood will last on kids like Chloe, but if there is a good chance it will be ‘durable and last indefinitely’."
Chloe’s stem cell treatment represents a growing area of interest where researchers today are investigating the use of one’s own cord blood to treat ailments such as brain injury, neurological disorders, and type I diabetes. Considering the emerging research in the field, the value of cord blood stem cells is not always realized. Dr. Charles Cox, an expert in pediatric brain injury at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston points out that if parents choose not to save their child’s cord blood, it is discarded as medical waste.
"Really, the issue of cord blood banking today comes down to trying to understand what the future holds in terms of regenerative medicine as a field," Cox said. "So, the long-term look is, and even the intermediate-term look is that it’s not science-fiction. I see it expanding and accelerating over the next two to five years."
View the Fox News Health video story about Chloe’s post reinfusion here
Read about Chloe’s story online at FoxNews.com