News

Volume 5 Issue 5 - March 01, 2007

Chennai hospital claims stem cell success on paraplegic

D.N.I.S. News Network – In the first ever instance in India, and perhaps second in the world, Lifeline Multi Specialty Hospital in Chennai in collaboration with the Niche-in Centre for Regenerative Medicine has ‘almost’ cured a paraplegic, Akbar Ali. 23-year-old Ali was wheelchair bound with no sensation below his chest after a fall from the fourth floor of a building in Abu Dhabi on 12 October 2006.

Ali was painting the fourth floor of a building when the accident occurred. He was admitted to a hospital in Abu Dhabi and operated on for a surgical correction of the spinal chord, after which he was flown down to Chennai. He underwent ‘autologous’ (own body) stem cell therapy on 29 December 2006. The Lifeline Hospital team aspirated 100 m.l. of bone marrow fluid from Ali’s hip bone and the stem cells were isolated and processed. About 20 m.l. of this concentrate was injected into Ali’s spinal fluid, where the maximum damage had occurred. Now, Ali is back on his feet, and has been discharged from the hospital. Ali said, “I can walk, bend and feel. I never thought I could even get off the bed.”

A family friend had taken Ali to the Lifeline Multi Specialty Hospital in Perungudi, when he arrived in Chennai on 10 December 2006, because he had lost control over all movements and activities. The hospital had just signed an agreement with Niche-in Centre for Regenerative Medicine, backed by the Tokyo-based Biotherapy Institute, and they decided to take on Ali’s case as the first ‘experiment’ in stem cell therapy.

Dr. R. Ravi Kumar, Cardiologist and Stem Cell Therapy Project Coordinator of the Hospital said, “This case has showcased the potential of stem cell therapy to bring people with paraplegia back to normalcy in such a quick and effective manner.”