Kristina,
 
Any such story would be suspect in my book.  In 2000, my wife, Laura, and I decided to have the cord blood saved from our son's birth.  She was dx'd with leukemia early in her pregnancy.  At the time, cord blood stem cells were purported to be the source of cures for all sorts of congenital and perinatal ailments.  Weve since discovered that this idea was based on a lot of voodoo science and was being marketed heavily by "cord blood banks".  Since her leukemia is genetically-driven, we were led to believe that saving the cord blood would be the perfect insurance policy to protect our kids against this disease.  This simply isn't true.
 
There is no "cure" for CP.  Hyperbaric treatments, stem cell replacements and the like are pipe dreams and snake oil marketed to grieving and guilt-stricken parents.  As others on the list have noted (and all of these folks are "first-person" CP-ers, not parents), sh*t happens, as it were.  As a very wise man said a couple thousand years ago, "The rain falls on both good folks and bad."  As tragic as it may seem, having CP (or any other physical or mental challenge) can make your daughter, your family and yourself far stronger, much closer.  The silver linings are there.
 
Kyle

________________________________

From: Cerebral Palsy List on behalf of [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thu 3/13/2008 12:23 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: stemcells



I saw a newsstory the other day with a little boy that had Cp. Hadto use a walkerand was not talking...I think he was about 3 or 4...they did the stem cellsfromhis umbilical cord and with ina week he was walking with no walker and talked for the first time....
WOW.... wish I had know they were goin to deliver me and 'save' my 25 weeker.... maybe I would have saved her cord blood.

Kristina



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