Dee just informed us that she had her one month check-up with her cardiologist back in California. The interesting twist of this visit is that the cardiologist did not know that Dee had received VesCell treatment.
The result was an astonished physician who asked her what had happened! He said she didn't seem like the same person he saw on her last visit. He reduced her from a New York Class 3 to a New York Class 2 and decided to take her off of (over a few weeks) three of the medications she had been taking.
Great to hear Dee! We hope this will be yet one more cardiologist in our corner!
Angie Morrison gives an update on Dale a month after his treatment. Things sound great!
Hi everyone,
Well I was going to wait until Dale had his first check-up but after talking with Don Margolis on the phone I thought maybe I should tell everyone how well Dale is doing. Don called because he wanted to connect us with a new patient in Beaumont TX and we are never home.
Well the reason for that is we go to the neighborhood pool from 7pm to 9pm just about every night. We have done this since our return from Bangkok. Dale is really doing great. He keeps himself busy all the time with little projects that have needed doing for at least a year and now are just getting done (this is great for me) He has been taking care of our daughter Yvonne’s garden and cutting the grass and all that since his return.
This past week he has been helping move her things from a Mountain Goat apartment (one room on each floor with a beautiful view but stairs that go straight up) Our youngest daughter came to help move the clothes because her sister was out of the country on business, and Dale said he would help. Well, he was told to watch the 5-year old grand daughter in the living room. He did that alright--he turned on the TV, went upstairs, got an armful of clothes, went back down two flights of stairs with clothing, and out to our big van. He did this four or five times before Mandy realized what he was doing! She yelled, "Hey Dad, you can’t do that remember you don’t climb the stairs!" He started to laugh and said well I guess I DO NOW!
That was last week. Today he was there at the apartment with the moving truck all by himself watching the movers pack and then he had to go across town with them and direct the unpacking. He is now back at the apartment to finish up with the movers. Either tomorrow or Wednesday he will reinstall the blinds at the apartment since they were taken down because she had drapes.
We are so proud of him He doesn’t even realize he is doing things he hasn’t done in years, and without prompting. His memory and thinking are better also I am sure it is because of the blood flow. His face isn’t scarlet anymore and his legs are still look really good not purple and awful. This was a really special thing that happened in Thailand. I say I am going to need a few cells myself just to keep up with him if this continues!
I really wish the great doctors and nursing staff could see just how good he is doing. The stem cell therapy works guys, it really does.
Thank you to all of you and a special thank you to Robert who came to our office meeting and put the thought in my daughter’s head that maybe this could help Dale. It has, as she just knew it would. I was so afraid it wouldn’t be right for him. I thought he would never qualify, and if he didn’t after getting his hopes up it would devastate him, but qualify he did! And it is all just great. Regards to everyone.
Dale & Angie Morrison
No case is typical. You should not expect to experience these results
Looking for interesting information on stem cell therapy? One nice resource is National Public Radio where doctors and researchers are given time to really explain what they are doing outside the short time limits typically imposed by television.
"Doctors in Michigan have used a patient's own stem cells to help repair his damaged heart. Host Ira Flatow and guests discuss this promising new experimental treatment."
This program discusses one of the first (perhaps the very first) uses of stem cells on a human heart outside of a clinical trial.
"An update on research efforts that are exploring the use of stem cells to fix damaged hearts"
A discussion with Chuck Murray from the University of Washington on heart muscle stem cells. Murray's past work involves transplanting muscle stem cells to the heart.
"Researchers at Johns Hopkins report that they've had luck in isolating and growing adult stem cells taken from tissue samples, and may be able to use those cells to help generate new tissue to heal the heart after an attack."
Yet another research group that hopes to treat people for heart disease using stem cells. We have commented on the Johns Hopkins group, but listen for yourselves on what they are doing.
"Can injecting stem cells into heart patients improve blood flow? In this hour, we'll look at a new treatment for heart disease that uses the patient's own bone marrow to restore heart function."
We've posted this link before. It is Amit Patel's NPR interview, but worth another listen along with the others.
Dee gives us an update a couple weeks after her treatment. Sounds great!
To one and all,
Well, I have managed to work almost a full week. Funny how you take things for granted.
I have been working since Monday (8-8) and today is Thursday (8-11), when I used to go home from work, I immedately sat in the chair and rested for a least an hour or two. Now when I go home, I look for things to do to stay ahead of housework. My housekeeper has this month off so I am on my own and doing quite well. I can stay up to 10 or 11pm now and I still get up at 6am and feel very rested. It is as if I have more energy and I am not sure what to do with it.
I honestly feel that my goal of going back to work full-time in September may be a reality. So to anyone that may feel discouraged about your health, or if you know of someone who is in that position or you yourself have heart problems, and nothing else can be done then by all means, log on to www.vescell.com and get on your way to healing.
I can never thank my husband enough for encouraging me in this joyful journey in health that I just took. I cannot believe the change in me in just a short time. I know things are only going to improve each day and someday I can be a testimony for someone else in search of Stem Cell Therapy.
Consider yourselves hugged.
Dee
No case is typical. You should not expect to experience these results
Hathairat Srichompol (Bell), our Healthcare Communications Specialist is another one of our staff whose job it is to make sure patients stay in Bangkok goes smoothly. Below she gives another perspective on the patient experience in Thailand.
That health is precious defies argument. Nobody in this world is free from diseases as once he is born into this world, he will be exposed to a variety of invading pathogens which might cause diseases in his body. Further, there is a variety of other abnormalities ranging from congenital to developmental ones. Therefore, people who have contracted or developed diseases and abnormalities have to seek expert medical attention from the right doctor at the right place.
On behalf of Theravitae Co. Ltd. (Thailand), we are proud to introduce our expert and exclusive service in the treatment of various heart abnormalities using the latest stem cell therapy. So far, quite a number of people from all over the world have benefited from our unique service rather than giving up all possible hope of recovery after going through the various conventional medical interventions available today.
“Sawatdee”, which is the traditional Thai way of greeting people, is the first word that the patient heard from me on arrival at Bangkok International Airport as a gesture of warm welcome to the ‘Land of Smiles’. We receive patients, both foreigners and Thais, from within Thailand and throughout the whole world. They are treated equally with our traditional world-famous hospitality of ‘tender, love and care’. Therefore, it would be difficult to single out my most favorite patient among the group of patients whom I have received.
However, there is one patient whom I can never forget. His name is Billy Bob from Texas, USA. I can remember he came with all necessary supporting facilities for a typical cardiac patient such as a walking cane and wheelchair. His wife Marie was accompanying him and on arrival at the airport, they both looked exhausted after a prolonged journey and needed a good rest.
Billy is a nice gentleman of 84. His pleasant and attractive personality is something that has deeply imprinted in my mind. He got along well with everybody in the hospital and made jokes with them. It was indeed a touching scene on the day of his discharge when he said goodbye to all the staff there and took a lot of memorable photos with them.
I also accompanied Marie on several of her sightseeing excursions. We went to the Jim Thompson House--a well-known tourist attraction; the house of the American man who made Thai silk world renown. Also, we went to Suan Lum Night Market where a lot of creative traditional Thai handicrafts, clothing and trendy bits are sold at a bargain prices.
Lastly, I must admit that I missed everybody at the airport upon departure back to the US. This was a totally different feeling compared with that the first time I met them at the airport on arrival. I just did not want to bid farewell to them and wished that they could stay behind but I realized that this was an impossibility. Instead, I wished them good luck and the best state of health for the days to come.
Hathairat Srichompol Healthcare Communication Specialist
Our first blog submission from the Israeli lab! Dr. Yael Porat, TheraVitae's Research and Development Manager gives us an insight into how the laboratory staff feels about manufacturing life-saving cells.
Receiving a bag containing a patient's blood, that has been flown halfway around the world, is quite an experience for anyone here who has been in this situation, more so when you realize that to most of our patients this is their best hope of a treatment for a debilitating condition. But when the manufacturing routine kicks in, all this is put aside and what remains is concentrating on the cell manufacturing process, which we have all performed many times with a lot of dedication and a great desire to help the people who have trusted us to help make them feel better.
The cell manufacturing process has been perfected mostly due to the hard work of our R&D staff who performed trial runs for many months to ensure we produce the most beneficial cellular product for our patients. All of us here are aware of the responsibility we carry while handling patients’ cells – we always remember that we are dealing with individual people, and despite not having the privilege of meeting them we never forget that fact. This led to quite a few sleepless nights during the first clinical patients we treated, but by now we are confident in our product and its ability to help people who until now were offered no effective treatment and condemned to suffer.
Our cell product takes several days to manufacture, during which we use cutting-edge methods and always maintain the highest standards of process controls. When production ends, cell samples are examined to see they meet pre-defined release criteria and the syringes carrying the cellular product are shipped in special temperature controlled packages, to make sure they reach Thailand in optimal conditions.
Being a multinational company, we are in constant close contact with our colleagues in Thailand. Bridging the geographical, cultural and time differences takes an effort, but the TheraVitae staff in Bangkok are so dedicated, friendly and helpful we feel like a single unit, striving as one to help our patients. Now, I’d like to remind everyone of the additional, “hidden” people involved in this project – our family members. Despite being parents, we still have had to devote a lot of time to the development of this treatment. My children sometimes complain of my spending too much time at work, so I explain them that we all collaborate in a very important mission of helping others. I also share my experiences with them and by now (although my youngest is about seven years old) they have come to know quite a bit about heart failure.
The satisfaction we get from knowing that our patients can go back to their normal lives is amazing. Moreover, thanks to this blog and the interviews on the website, we at Theravitae manufacturing lab, who lack the direct touch with our patients treated in Thailand, have the opportunity to see first hand who it is we're helping and that's when the great beneficial effect we can have on people's lives really hits home. These testimonials, which I think are the best indication for the success of our treatment, really motivate us to keep on working hard in order to help people. So I'd like to take this opportunity and thank everyone who took time to write here and on the TheraVitae and Vescell websites, and hope that together we will spread the knowledge of this safe and helpful treatment to many others who can benefit from this treatment.
Khajornsak Suntorarak is TheraVitae's Operations Executive. He works directly with patients during their stay in Bangkok, providing a steady presense to make sure their needs are met. Read on to see his perspective of the patient experience:
Working at TheraVitae offers the great prospect to both confront a novel treatment and to help people at the same time. Through VesCell™ stem cell therapy, TheraVitae has made available to the world an amazing opportunity to prolong and improve life. To me, this treatment, Stem Cell Therapy, is hope to heart disease patients. When I came to TheraVitae and joined the operations team, I had to learn and understand as much as possible about stem cells and heart disease before I met my first patient.
On that day, I waited at the airport with a bouquet of flowers to greet the patient, Mr. Grinstead--who had me call him Bob--and his family; Mrs. Barbara Grinstead and Darla, their daughter, from Georgia, USA. This was the first non-resident VesCell™ patient, and was to be my first patient experience.
Bob told me about stem cell issues in the USA. He had seen a lot of news on using stem cells to treat patients for various diseases in revolutionary and sometimes conventional therapies. The United States FDA has approved of stem cell therapy for heart disease only in clinical trials. However, suffering patients need stem cell therapy to improve their symptoms now! Bob was one such patient. He and his relatives began to do research on the internet and found TheraVitae’s VesCell™ technology. After learning more about TheraVitae and VesCell™ they decided to come to Bangkok, Thailand for treatment.
The facilities for the Grinsteads' stay were all excellent including the five-star hotel, the hospital, the medical staff, and absolutely the stem cell product--VesCell™. Barbara and Darla told me the hotel, Bangkok Marriott Resort and Spa, was very impressive. They appreciated the Thai style and decoration. They also appreciated all the Thai people smiling (Thailand is the land of smiles). They also loved the large morning buffets!
The Grinsteads visited many attractions in Bangkok and the near provinces such the Floating Market, the Bridge on the River Kwai, and many temples. They saw quite a bit of local culture during their touring.
I also learned a lot about American family life from the Grinsteads. Barbara took care of Bob during all of their time at the hospital. They have been a loving couple for so long and it really shows. The Grinstead family doesn’t look like those in Hollywood films. They have spent married life together for more than 50 years and have a big family. I respect them for their married life.
Bob’s stem cell injection went perfectly and he rehabilitated for two nights at the hospital. In the final day before leaving they invited me to play a card that was the game of the family and kidded that I was a new grandson. They are such a cheerful and warm family.
I look forward to continued updates as Bob improves!
At TheraVitae we are all proud of the research our team has completed and continues to work on. However, we are also proud to be part of the global scientific community that seeks to find ways to make life better for those suffering from heart disease. With that sense of fraternity in mind, today we would like to point out two other research groups doing similar work to that which the TheraVitae team has done with VesCell.
At the Texas Heart Institute, researchers have completed clinical trials using stem cells derived from bone marrow. More recently they were able to perform an autopsy on one of those patients who died eleven months later (due to unrelated circumstances) and found that stem cell therapy did indeed lead to revascularization and perhaps new tissue growth.
In Germany, a team is also working on stem cell therapy to treat heart disease. Their research uses peripheral blood stem cells.
Rather than seeing these groups as competitors, we see them as partners in science and feel that their work supports our own and ours theirs. The abundance of knowledge, discovery and success that all groups treating heart disease with adult stem cells have had gives us even greater confidence that we are truly making the lives of the people we treat better.
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”.
We've got another great progress report! This one from Barbara Grinstead on her husband Bob. Thanks, Barbara and good luck Bob! I hope Barbara's list of chores that have been piling up the last few years isn't too long!
Dear Don Margolis, Jitra and TheraVitae,
My husband, Bob Grinstead, was the first private patient in the world to travel abroad for stem cell therapy by TheraVitae. This came to pass because our son-in-law, Mike McKenzie, was reading the November issue of Fortune magazine and read an article about a man in the US who had been part of a clinical trial for adult stem cell therapy and was progressing beautifully. This man was Bob's age and had an almost identical heart history and Mike thought, “That sounds just like my father-in-law." With that thought our adventure began.
We spent about two months researching stem cell therapy. Bob talked to Emory Hospital in Atlanta, read many articles, even called a doctor in Michigan that had preformed a similar procedure and then found TheraVitae on the Internet. After a family friend, who is involved in medical research, said that we were dealing with a valid company and very competent doctors we polled our four children and every one of us felt that we should go for it. We had decided at that point that all we had to lose was money and stood to gain a healthy Bob Grinstead once again.
At this time, I would like to fill you in on Bob's heart history. Two days before Christmas, in 1990, with no other warning other than he had diabetes Bob, age 55, had a massive heart attack and under went by-pass surgery. From that time on he went through twenty six heart catheterizations which included angioplasties, eight stents with multiple laser burn outs and nuclear isotopes, three minor heart attacks and a second by pass surgery followed by three medicated stents. In August of 2004, he was told that there was nothing else that could be done for him. He had reached the point where his congestive heart failure was so bad that a shower and shampoo made him take nitroglycerin.
We were accepted into the program by TheraVitae and our daughter, Darla, decided to go with us. So off to Thailand the three of us travel and the fairy tale began. From the time that our plane landed in Bangkok until we left to fly home, we were in awe of the treatment that we received. A reception committee was there to greet us and take us to a wonderful hotel. The hotel had five major restaurants, palm trees four stories high, boats to take us down the river and every amenity.
Bob was checked into the hospital and underwent the most thorough physical that he had ever experienced. Some of his medical records had not reached the doctors there so they even preformed a nuclear scan on him. Darla and I looked at each other and decided that we could not believe the extent to which they were going to make sure that the therapy was a success.
We had a few days to sight see and have a great chance to get to know and love Thailand and its kind people. We had never dreamed that we would see so many interesting things there: palaces, pagodas, temples, floating markets, chanting monks, rice fields, salt flats, hand carved teak factories, night markets, etc. What an added bonus to our trip.
We left Atlanta on March 1st and on March 10th his blood was drawn to be sent to Israel for extraction of specific stem cells and multiplication of these cells. Bob was back in the hospital on 17th, waiting for the stem cells to return. He underwent a painless insertion procedure just like all of the angioplasties that he had received in the US.
The hospital, Chaophya, could not have been cleaner or better equipped. The doctors and nurses could not have been nicer, more efficient or more knowledgeable. They spent a vast amount of time and effort keeping us informed and comfortable with all that was happening. The doctors really impressed us and we will be eternally grateful for all of their kindness towards us. We learned that the nurses had even been given classes in English so that they could converse with us. Just walking through the hospital was an experience as we were treated like royalty.
We returned home to Atlanta on the 20th of March. Four weeks later, Bob was out cleaning the garage which he had not felt like doing for years. We celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary in June with all of our children, grandchildren and great grandchild here to enjoy it with us. I get excited when I hear Bob running up the stairs or doing other things that had taken so much effort before stem cell therapy.
We want to say a heartfelt thank you to all of the people at TheraVitae for making this truly an experience of a lifetime.
Sincerely, Barbara Grinstead
No case is typical. You should not expect to experience these results
With his appearance on ABC Nightly News the other day, Dr. Amit Patel has recieved a lot of attention. If you would like to learn more about Dr. Patel's work with stem cells please have a look at the information on Dr. Patel's page on the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's website.
ABC News interviewed Dr. Amit Patel last night. Dr. Patel, who has used VesCell to treat heart disease patients, discussed how adult stem cells can work to build new arteries.
'"What we do is actually take them out and find the right amount of cells and specifically put them into targeted areas," said Dr. Amit Patel, director of the Cardiac Stem Cell Therapies at The McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Results in more than 100 patients show that, within just three months after the stem cell injections, patients see a significant improvement in blood flow to the heart. The heart muscle itself actually doubles its ability to squeeze or contract. Researchers say these adult stem cells might help tens of millions of heart patients each year.'
Our August newsletter is now out. Click on this post's title to read it and feel free to comment on it here!
The most important announcement came from the Texas Heart Institute. The Houston Chronicle carried this story titled, "Evidence boosts stem cells' promise: With patient's own cells, heart vessels and tissue show mending." The findings of this study were also published in the 27 July issue of the journal "Circulation" published by the American Heart Association. The Texas team had earlier completed a clinical trial of stem cell therapy for heart disease in Brazil. One of the patients in that trial died of unrelated causes 11 months after being implanted with his own adult stem cells. This offered an exciting opportunity to see what the stem cells had done. The autopsy revealed that new blood vessel growth had indeed occurred in this patient and that the chemical signatures of new muscle growth were present as well. While this is only a single patient, it provides promising anecdotal evidence that stem cell therapy is promoting revascularization and muscle tissue growth in the heart.
If you would like to subscribe to our newsletter, please send an email to subscriptions@vescell.com with the word "subscription" in the subject line.
We have a one-month update on Billy Bob Williams. Big thanks to his wife Marie for keeping us informed on how he's doing. Things sound great! Best wishes Billy Bob!
July 28, 2005
Today Billy celebrated his one month anniversary since having the Stem Cell procedure in Thailand. We are happy to report that we are definitely seeing an improvement. Prior to the procedure many of you know that Billy was able to walk only a short distance before being totally out of breath and experiencing chest, head and back pain and always used his cane. While he is not ready to run a marathon just yet he is walking much faster and can walk two blocks without any discomfort. He may be able to go further but we have been cautioned by the doctors in Thailand not to overdo it the first few weeks.
I look forward to updating all of you again with Billy’s continued progress. I am having a hard time holding him back. He is feeling so good that he wants to get back to work and go visit with all of his friends. He never gave up but has felt so bad in the past year that he definitely had to slow down. It appears that those days are over and he not only feels better but looks better than he has in years. I hope you all get the chance to see him soon!
Thank you for your prayers and love!
Billy & Marie
No case is typical. You should not expect to experience these results.
Site Feed