Blind girl hopes to receive stem cell treatment in ChinaJOANNE

December 20, 2007
BRATTON Bulletin Staff Writer
Sitting in her classroom, 8-year-old Kacie Sallee is like the rest of her classmates, laughing to Dr. Seuss' book, "How The Grinch Stole Christmas!"
When it's time for writing later that day, Kacie pulls out her Braille machine and keeps up with the rest of her third-grade class.

The Mountain Home girl was born with Septo-Optic Dysplasia, which is an underdevelopment of the optic nerve and pituitary gland, says her mother, Marinda Sallee. Although Kacie is blind and walks with a white cane, she can see light and some bright colors, Sallee says.
While the family has been told there is no cure for Kacie's condition, a new treatment using umbilical cord stem cells is being offered in China. With four reported success stories, it has given them hope their daughter could see for the first time.
"We were told from the beginning there was no hope for her seeing," Sallee said. "This is exciting. There's a risk of infection and spinal headaches, but it's a chance we're wanting to take."
Kacie and her mother plan to travel to China in June if they can raise the estimated $60,000 for medical treatments and travel. They hope to go with another Mountain Home resident, Josh Moore, 16, who also is blind. Moore and his mother, Melissa Kasinger, have just found out about the stem-cell treatments offered in China.
"It's overwhelming," Kasinger said. "We were told his whole life there was nothing we could do."
The procedure, which is not approved in the United States, involves injecting umbilical cord blood stem cells into the patient's bloodstream and spinal canal, according to information from Beike Biotech, a biotechnology company based in Shenzhen, China. The company supplies stem cells at 11 hospitals in China and one in Thailand for cellular therapy for a variety of diseases. The new cells replace diseased or dysfunctional cells with functional ones, according to the company.
After patients receive stem-cell treatment and return home, it is suggested they receive oxygen treatment for 1 1/2 hours a day, five days a week, for one year to help the stem cells progress, Sallee says.
So far, the four children with optic-nerve diseases who have received stem-cell treatment have reported progress, says Kirshner Ross-Vaden, a registered nurse and Chicago-based vice president of foreign patient relations for Beike Biotech. The first treatment began in June.
"No one in the world has attempted to treat it," said Ross-Vaden, adding that 25 children are scheduled to go to China for treatment within the first six months of next year. "It's really amazing. The fact that no one had any hope for their child and literally almost overnight parents who were told their children would never see, have — for the first time in their lives — a realistic option."
The Sallees first heard about the treatment in October from a Springfield, Mo., television broadcast about 5-year-old Rylea Barlett from Webb City, Mo.
Soon after receiving stem-cell treatments, Barlett, who was blind, was able to see light and recognize faces of her family up close, according to the family's online blog.
Although it's scary for Kacie to think of traveling across the globe to get treatment for her blindness, she wants to see. And if the treatments work, she hopes to take ballet classes, she says.
Mountain Home 11th-grader Josh Moore also is excited about the possibility of being able to see.
"It would be very good if it ends up working," Moore said. "I'm looking forward to it."
The Sallees hope to buy a hyperbaric oxygen chamber for the oxygen therapy and share its use with Moore, because it is cheaper buying the equipment than paying for individual treatments for one year, Marinda Sallee says.
To help raise funds for treatment for Kacie Sallee and Josh Moore, Mountain Home junior high students involved in Student Ambassadors For Everyone (SAFE) are sponsoring a student dodge ball tournament Friday.
Students can pay to watch or participate in the tournament, as well as pay money to wear a hat, have their MP-3 player or cell phone on them during the school day, School Resource Officer Tom Canta says. Students who watch or are in the tournament also will be entered in a drawing to win $20-$50 in gift cards donated by Wal-Mart.
Those in the community who want to donate money to help with treatment costs for both students can mail or drop off checks at the junior high school until the end of the school year, Canta says. The money received will be evenly divided between Sallee and Moore.
"If we can help someone get to see, we'll do it," Canta said. "To me, to have a little girl see again — who doesn't want to help that?"



Bulletin Photo by Kevin Pieper
Using a Braille machine, Kacie Sallee, 8, reads through an English paper while Nelson-Wilks-Herron Elementary School third-grade teacher Cindy Childress watches.
Want to help?
· A benefit account for 8-year-old Kacie Sallee is set up at First Security Bank. Donations will be used for medical treatment and travel costs.
· A fundraiser to help pay for medical treatment and travel costs for Sallee and 16-year-old Josh Moore has begun at the Mountain Home Junior High School. Those who want to donate can write checks made out to Mountain Home Junior High School and drop them off at the office, or mail them to the junior high school C/O School Resource Officer Tom Canta, 2301 Rodeo Drive, Mountain Home, AR 72653. Those with questions about the fundraiser can call the junior high office at 425-1231.

Bulletin Photo by Kevin Pieper
Third-grade student Lauren Wilber, 9, helps Kacie Sallee, 8, with a project Tuesday during class at Nelson-Wilks-Herron Elementary School. Sallee and her family hope to travel to China this summer for a new treatment using umbilical cord stem cells that could help restore her sight.