Qingdao Hospital Stem Cell Treatment Restores Eyesight for Brit Grandma. A 76-year-old British grandmother who lost her eyesight (she was diagnosed with giant cell arteritis, an inflammation in the blood vessels) got her vision back following stem cell therapy in Qingdao Hospital in China.
Dorothy Leach is now able to make out faces, shapes, and colors according to a Daily Mail news report.
From Daily Mail:
Dorothy’s plight began when she woke up one morning in February last year to discover she had gone blind. She was diagnosed with giant cell arteritis, an inflammatory disease of blood vessels. Doctors in the UK said they could not restore her sight, but the Chinese hospital said it offered pioneering stem cell treatment that could restore her vision.
Dorothy’s daughter, Vicky, has more details on the treatment procedure and its effect on her mother’s eyesight: “The main treatment was a weekly injection of stem cell fluid taken from umbilical cords at a maternity centre in Beijing and flown to Qingdao. Mum had to have two injections of the fluid into her right eye without anaesthetic, one of which was very painful. There were also six injections of fluid into her hand.”
Dorothy adds: “Every day she had wave therapy, which involves electrical impulses to stimulate the parts of the brain involved. And she had acupuncture every day with one needle in the top of her head, two in her wrists, two in her knees and two in her ankles.”
Apparently, the Leach family were not the only ones who traveled to Qingdao for stem cell treatment.
Says Dorothy: “The hospital has become known throughout the world for this treatment that it has been performing since 2004. We met other patients there who had flown in from Brazil, Canada and America for it.”
And how is Mrs Leach recuperating these days?
Dorothy reveals that her “mum has good days and bad days with her sight now. She can see shapes and bright lights and on some days much more than that. One day when we were out there she was able to see the writing on a sign quite clearly. The doctor said she should hopefully get steadily better over the next six to 12 months. After a year her sight will probably be as good as it’s going to get.”
We wish Dorothy well and we hope she continues her journey to recovery.
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For more successful stem cell stories, you might want to check out the story of Macie Morse another blind person who was also treated in China and Jona Ghelli’s successful therapy at the XCell Stem Cell Clinic in Germany.
Qingdao Hospital Stem Cell Treatment Restores Eyesight for Brit Grandma. Posted 5 November 2010.