Despite his cuteness and endearing ways, mother couldn’t help feeling concerned when he didn’t sit up after seven months. “If you ask the doctors, they will tell you not to worry because some children develop slower than others. But after one year, he still wasn’t sitting up by himself. It was quite obvious that something wasn’t right with my baby,” said mom. “He is such a delightful child, and we didn’t want his inability to walk to hold him back.”

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In the beginning, no one could determine the reason for his problem.  It took the doctors eight months before they could conclusively say the problem was caused by cerebral palsy.  The delay in diagnosis was because first, the doctors had to check his spine, bones, and conduct various tests to rule out the other possible reasons their boy could not walk.  Cerebral palsy cases differ greatly from one case to the other and there is no simple test to determine the problem.

A COMMON CONDITION Cerebral palsy is the cause for the range of disabilities affecting spastic children.  Effects of cerebral palsy range from minimal to extreme.  Some children affected with cerebral palsy look perfectly normal except for the occasional clumsiness while 20 percent are mentally hampered by the condition.  Most patients are normal despite their impaired ability to control their expressions and reactions, which leads people to believe that they lack intelligence.  In truth, some are exceptionally intelligent.

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Dr. Konstantinos Papadopoulos, or Dr. Kostas for short, Chief  Medical Research and Development Officer of StemLife Thailand explains, “Cerebral palsy is a condition stemming from the patients’ brain which fails to develop fully just before or after a child is born.  It tends to occur more frequently of there was a problem during birth, while lack of oxygen and infections are believed to be a factor, in many cases no one knows why it happens, it causes disruption in motor skills, visible as spasticity, paralysis or seizures.  It’s more common than we think, afflicting one out of 500 babies born and one in three preterm babies.  It only causes mental problems in 20 percent of the cases and this usually occurs only in very premature babies.”  The boy’s case, he appears as normal as any other three-year-old, except for the weakness in his legs.  His condition is also referred to as being spastic diplegia.   According to the doctors, there is no cure and the only hope for him is to put him through physiotherapy sessions to prevent the muscles from deteriorating.  Following this advice, the he was taken for physical therapy at the hospital twice a week and coached home at home daily. 

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SAVING FOR THE FUTURE to prepare themselves, mother and father asked doctors and learnt what they could about cerebral palsy on the internet. As they searched for something that could help their son get better, the couple across a new technique that brought positive results to another boy in Bangkok which had a similar condition.  After 18 weeks, he was already walking, swimming and trying to run.  They didn’t know much, but one thing they did know was that the child’s parents had saved his cord blood at birth.

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“Lucky for us, we had stored son’s cord blood at birth,” said the father. “It was my sister who recommended it to us.  She had banked in her son’s cord blood and suggested we do the same for ours.”

“We didn’t really know what the benefits were, but at 100,000 Baht for processing and lifetime storage, the price was reasonable. We figured that it might come in handy in case anything happened to our son’s in the future.  We didn’t know that we would need it after less than three years,” mother shipped in.

The whole process took 10 days because the boy needed some injections beforehand.  The application itself only took 10 minutes. 30 ml.  Of cord blood, about two tablespoonfuls was sent into the boy veins through a drip.  “After some initial discomfort as the needle was inserted, the boy carried on watching TB and laughing at the cartoons.  His doctor kept him in ICU for observation for a day.  He had some itching that night but it cleared by morning,” mother related.

“This use for cord blood was started in the United States and has now spread to Europe and Asia.  At the moment, the application is still at the trial stage and no reports have been written about the practice.  However, children who were infused with their own cord blood got on their feet more quickly than those who only had regular physiotherapy which sometimes takes as long as eight to nine years before showing clear improvement,” said Dr. Kostas.

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WALKING AWAY! “The results we saw after a week are very encouraging,” said mom.  “He used to be listless and didn’t like to walk.  After infusion, he looked more alert and interested in his surroundings.  He speaks clearly now.

With an arm around her son to keep him steady, “See how normal the angle of his feet is now? He doesn’t even need corrective shoes anymore.  His left leg used to be a problem but not anymore.  His legs are not that strong yet, but we’ll be happy if he can improve enough to walk by himself and go to school like other kids.” Dr. Kostas assured her that he most probably will achieve that. “I know he may not be 100 percent cured, but I hope that it will be enough to help him a normal, productive life.”

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