Stem Cell/Cord Blood Banking
My wife was approached about this in the hospital the other day. I'm in Korea so I've been told to do my own research.
Basically right after birth they will freeze and store blood from the umbilical chord and sometimes even part of the cord itself.
This is completely safe and painless.
The samples can then be donated or stored for personal family use at a cost.
Quote:
Cord blood stem cells have been used successfully to treat more than 70 different diseases, including some cancers, blood disorders, and immune deficiencies. Among these are leukemia, aplastic anemia, thalassemia, Hodgkin's disease, and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. (Cord blood stem cells have also been used to treat sickle cell anemia, but that procedure is not yet on the FDA-approved list.)
Cord blood transplants are also used to treat rare metabolic disorders that would otherwise be fatal for infants (Krabbe disease and Sanfilippo syndrome, for example).
Quote:
Cerebral palsy and autism
Children in clinical trials are being treated with their own cord blood for cerebral palsy, a condition that afflicts about 1 in 300 children in the United States. Children in clinical trials are also being treated with their own cord blood for autism, a condition that affects 1 in 88 children.
Hydrocephalus, type 1 diabetes, and more
Babies and young children in the United States are also being reinfused with their own cord blood stem cells in clinical trials to develop therapies for hydrocephalus (fluid in the brain), oxygen deprivation at birth, traumatic brain injury, type 1 (juvenile) diabetes, and congenital heart defects that require surgery. If the clinical trials are successful, these therapies may become commonly available within a few years
Obviously, if this shit was free/cheap then everybody would be crazy not to do it. However, I would imagine not everybody in the family would be compatible depending on blood type. Obviously, and most importantly(?) your baby is compatible, however, some diseases will specifically require somebody else's stem cells.
Quote:
Is it best to be treated with your own stem cells?
Not necessarily. It depends on the illness or condition being treated.
When doctors use stem cells to help the body repair itself, the patient's own cells are ideal. There's no concern that his body will reject his own stem cells or react against them.
But when the body is making the wrong cells – for example, if the illness is cancer or a genetic blood disorder – then the transplant must come from a donor, not the patient's own cells. That's because the patient's stem cells probably carry the same defect that caused the cancer or the genetic disease, and you'd be transplanting the seeds of the disease back into the patient.
Some Points
My wife has told me that the cost for this is around 85,000 baht. Although I am not sure if there is annual storage fees or whatever on top of that and I will not know until I get home.
The 'company/hospital/clinic' offering this service offers a payment plan.
It may not be compatible/someone else's stem cells may be required.
We are covered with top class medical insurance that pays for everything directly without having to claim. If any of us needed it they would pay for a donor, but that depends on availability. This will end if my employment ends.
I have already saved (due to insurance) around 50k in medical services for her pregnancy alone, and 5 months still to go.
I'm definitely more for it since writing this.
Has anybody got any experience with this, got any related stories?
Thanks,
Dirk.
Info link - http://www.babycenter.com/0_cord-blo...-it_1362261.bc
