Experience Stem Cell Therapy in Thailand

Jitra Pongdoung is TheraVitae's International Health Care Manager. Among her duties is making sure that all international patients are well taken care of and that their experience from arrival to departure goes smoothly. Jitra was kind enough to offer her own perspective on her experience dealing with patients.

“I look forward to having a healthy husband when we celebrate our golden 50th wedding anniversary in June 2005.”

I heard this sentence from the wife of one of our patients who came from America to Thailand for Stem Cell Therapy in March. This couple touched me to the bottom of my heart. It was just the way that they cared and honored each other. Later on I couldn’t help but ask them the secret of their loving life. How did they make themselves into the type of family that most people only ever dream of?

You cannot imagine how proud I was to be part of that patient’s Stem Cell Therapy; the ground breaking treatment.

On March 4, 2005 we looked forward to meeting our patient at Bangkok International Airport with a bouquet of flowers in our hands. We always make sure that every single thing is set and well-organized for our patients because we do not think any patient would be happy with unexpected events and we strive to provide the greatest service that the patient has ever seen.

It was about the midnight when the plane touched down. First impressions were what I thought about. For a long while we had communicated via email and the telephone and now we finally were to meet this patient and his family. We had a driver ready to bring them to their hotel where they quickly were checked into their room. It is our policy not to let the patient wait in any long queues at the reception counter. We concern ourselves with all the details ahead of time. The next day we took the patient for a tour of the hospital to familiarize them with the facility and to meet with staff and doctors. The patient and his family met the cardiologist to review medical records and the procedure. The family of the patient was never left behind; they were informed about every step of our testing and the therapy. This patient had needed to complete an Echocardiogram (ECG), Nuclear Image, and blood test before the blood collection day arrived. An angiogram was performed before he arrived in Bangkok and would be repeated on the day of treatment. After that, it was time for leisure. Time for the patient and his family to go sightseeing around Bangkok; the City of Angels!

The day of blood collection, the procedure started at the hospital by drawing 250 cc of the patient’s peripheral blood for the selection of ACPs (Angiogenic Cell Precursors). This was similar to what one would do during a blood donation. The flight had been booked for the packaged blood to be delivered to our laboratory in Israel. There is a great deal of paperwork for us to complete in order to meet approval for export and to maintain standards of medical protocol. The blood was sent to our lab for a 5-day process of the stem cell selection and cell multiplication, yielding a package of concentrated ACPs.

Normally 7 days later from the blood collection, the ACPs are then sent back to Bangkok ready to be implanted. In the hospital’s cath lab, the ACPs were injected intracoronary through catheterization. I witnessed the treatment in the catheterization room with the patient, his own cells arrived in syringes packaged in Israel and accompanied by the Certificate of Analysis (COA) which is used to identify that this was indeed the patient’s own cells and are approved for use in implantation. After the day of treatment, the patient stayed for two nights at the CCU for close observation and was discharged on the second morning.

The patient and his family felt that they truly had one of the great experiences of their lifetime with Stem Cell Therapy in Thailand.

They felt that they had some of the best medical care that they had ever experienced and they appreciated the fact that all of the doctors and nurses went out of their way to make them feel comfortable. They felt so safe in our care.

Their most favorite souvenirs of their trip were the little leather elephants that we brought to the hospital after the treatment day. The elephants symbolize long life and are the symbolic animal of Thailand. The patient and his family also had nearly three hundred wonderful photographs to take back home with them from which they could remember all of us and Thailand.

One fine morning I got an email from the patient’s wife with an attached photo. I counted the number of people in the photo and there were 22 people standing in front of a warm looking house. I was overwhelming with happiness but you’d better read her message yourself.

“This is a photo of our children, grandchildren and great-grandchild taken at our 50th anniversary party. These are just some of the people that are happy that my husband had stem cell therapy. We had three complete days of celebration and the most wonderful part was having my husband feel so good and having all of our children, grandchildren and great grandchild there together.”

Is this not a life that we all long for?

Jitra Pongdoung
International Healthcare Manager
“Where there’s will there’s a way”.