While I've considered the medicial possibilities of umbilical cord blood, I never thought much about it. We banked our kids' cord blood and of course hope that we'll never have to use it.
This story about a little girl from New Zealand illustrates a possible treatment. It sounds like cord blood may have given her a chance at life.
Maia Friedlander is 4 years old. Her twin sister Ariel, "hit all her developmental milestones about six months early." But Maia "did not learn to crawl till she was three." Maia "struggled to talk, walk properly or even chew her food without choking," and was in therapy for six hours each day.
But after a "two-hour infusion of her own cord blood", Maia is now in kindergarten and appears to be on the mend. Her parents say, "she's like a different child" after the treatment, which took place at Duke University in North Carolina.
Obviously, as parents, we hope that we never have to use a procedure such as this. But it's encouraging to hear about successful treatments like this one. As far as I'm concerned, anything that helps a little girl to have a better life is a good thing.
Source: Stuff.co.nz
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