As most of you know Amaya, a 4 year old girl with Optic Nerve Hypoplasia from Virginia Beach was in China over the holiday’s to receive her stem cell transplants.
Amaya is the 5th child in the world to receive treatment. Upon arriving in China she had some minimal level of light perception but only to bright light shined directly into her eyes at close range and her pupil response was very sluggish and minimal. She was considered to be legally blind and has had no improvement over the years in her eyesight. Amaya also had severe delays in both motor function and speech. She also is so orally defensive that she must be feed via a PEG tube.
She has just left the hospital in China and returned home and I am very happy to announce that she has indeed had some improvements. Her motor function and speech have both shown improvements as well she appears to have had visual changes as well. Her mother has reported that the night prior to leaving the hospital Amaya reached out accurately targeting her mom’s hands and grabbed her mother’s finger, she has never done this before and needless to say Ebony her mother was very surprised when it happened. Amaya is also responded with a greater reaction to the flash light test. In addition when the doctors place their hand in front of her face she becomes very unhappy and irritated. Prior to treatment she did not respond in anyway to having someone place their hand in front of her. This is an indication that she call see now that something is in front of her. Since Amaya has delays in her speech we can not ask her to tell us if and/or what she sees thus we have only this subjective data to go on but it does appear that she has responded with visual changes/improvements as a direct result of the stem cells.
Once she is reexamined by her stateside ophthalmologist we will have a clearer picture of what type and level of improvements have occurred. I will of course post an update at that time.
Amaya is the 5th child in the world to receive treatment. Upon arriving in China she had some minimal level of light perception but only to bright light shined directly into her eyes at close range and her pupil response was very sluggish and minimal. She was considered to be legally blind and has had no improvement over the years in her eyesight. Amaya also had severe delays in both motor function and speech. She also is so orally defensive that she must be feed via a PEG tube.
She has just left the hospital in China and returned home and I am very happy to announce that she has indeed had some improvements. Her motor function and speech have both shown improvements as well she appears to have had visual changes as well. Her mother has reported that the night prior to leaving the hospital Amaya reached out accurately targeting her mom’s hands and grabbed her mother’s finger, she has never done this before and needless to say Ebony her mother was very surprised when it happened. Amaya is also responded with a greater reaction to the flash light test. In addition when the doctors place their hand in front of her face she becomes very unhappy and irritated. Prior to treatment she did not respond in anyway to having someone place their hand in front of her. This is an indication that she call see now that something is in front of her. Since Amaya has delays in her speech we can not ask her to tell us if and/or what she sees thus we have only this subjective data to go on but it does appear that she has responded with visual changes/improvements as a direct result of the stem cells.
Once she is reexamined by her stateside ophthalmologist we will have a clearer picture of what type and level of improvements have occurred. I will of course post an update at that time.
1 comment:
i TOOK MY SON TO BEIJING CHINA LAST
JULY-OCTOBER 2007, WHO IS SCI PATIENT. MY SON WOUNDS ON HIS LEGS , HER HERE THEY SUGGEST SKIN GRAFT TO GCOVER-UP- WHEN ARRIVING IN CHINA A TREATMENT PLAN WAS MADE, MY SON HAS MUCH INFECTION IHIS BODY AND POSSIBLE OF HAVING HIS LET AMPUTED, BY THE TIME WE LEFT HIS LEGS WERE HEALED, SINCE BEING HOME WHICH HE HAD BONE MARROW TRANSPLANTED, HE HAS PLEASING AMOUNT OF IMPVROEVEMENT, HE IS STRONGER, CAN FEED HIS SELF,
LIFT ABOUT 25PD, EATING GOOD, HAVE MUSCLE MOVEMENT IN LEGS AND FEET, THE DOCTORS SAID, HE WILL BEABLE TO WALK AGAIN, WE ARE PLANNING ON GOING BACK THIS YEAR,WORKING ON FIANCIAL FUNDS, I AM VERY HAPPY ABOUT MY SON PROGRESS AND HE IS VERY HAPPY ABOUT THING THAT WAS DONE FOR IN CHINA, BECAUSE THEY HEALED HIM FROM THE INSIDE AND OUT.
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