Client Spotlight:
Child with Brain Injury On the Road to Recovery

Chloe, the second daughter born to Jenny and Ryan Levine, appeared to be a perfectly healthy baby for her first few months of life. However, at nine-months of age, her parents began to notice that she was not achieving the milestones that they had experienced with their first daughter. She couldn't hold her bottle and her right hand was always in a fist; she was also unable to raise both hands above her head. Instead of crawling, she would scoot, propelling herself along with her left leg, dragging her right leg behind her.

As Chloe grew older, she continued to show further signs of developmental delay. She only spoke about five words and would frequently fall. At her one-year check-up, a CAT scan showed that a portion on the left side of Chloe's brain had never developed and contained fluid. The Levines took Chloe to a pediatric neurologist for an MRI, where she was ultimately diagnosed with a form of cerebral palsy that was causing the paralysis on the right side of her body. While the cerebral palsy could have resulted from several factors during the pregnancy, one possibility the doctor's believe is that Chloe may have experienced a stroke in-utero very early in the pregnancy damaging the left side of her brain. It is estimated that perinatal stroke affects 1 in 2,300 to 1 in 5,000 births and accounts for 30% of children affected with cerebral palsy.¹

Because Chloe's cord blood stem cells were family banked with CBR, Chloe had the unique opportunity to participate in a pioneering procedure at Duke University. The experimental procedure focused on infusing patient's with their own cord blood stem cells as a treatment for cerebral palsy. Her infusion occurred on May 27th.

Since the infusion, Chloe's parents have noticed significant changes and developmental progress. She no longer has stiffness and rigidity in her right hand and foot. She is able to reach both hands above her head and can now give hugs with both arms - something that she was not able to do prior to the procedure. Her vocabulary has doubled and she falls much less frequently than before; in fact, she is no longer dragging her right foot and her ability to run faster seems to improve daily.

The Levines' story is another great example of how CBR is helping advance regenerative medicine and demonstrates the amazing benefits that can happen when a child has access to his or her own cord blood stem cells.

1 Raju TN, Nelson KB, Ferriero D, Lynch JK. Ischemic perinatal stroke: summary of a workshop sponsored by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Pediatrics. Sep 2007;120(3):609-616.

In addition to the current uses, new medical applications for cord blood stem cells are being discovered rapidly; however, banking cord blood does not guarantee that the cells will provide a cure or be applicable for every situation.

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