Death Sentence For Surfers Man Commuted by Stem Cells

Stem Cell Guy was perusing his mailbag and look what he found! As I received this article during the holiday season, this must have come from Santa Claus. I couldn't ask for a better present from Santa-- yet another Theravitae patient treated for heart disease with his own adult stem cells has made a fantastic turn-around.




DEATH SENTENCE FOR SURFERS MAN COMMUTED BY STEM CELLS


Jon Whyte

BANGKOK, Thailand December 28, 2006 - Peter Irwin from Surfers Paradise looks the picture of health. He and his Thai partner are in Bangkok for a check-up and a holiday – a time to relax and for his pregnant partner to visit family. He sounds both positive and optimistic as he recounts his dramatic story.

“After a twenty year history of admissions to ICU wards I was finally advised that at 55 years of age I had Dilated Cardiomyopathy with some Ischaemic Heart Disease. I was given a fifty to sixty percent chance of lasting ten years, he recounts. “Then my condition became far worse. Two years ago, after an Angiogram that had to be stopped due to severe chest pain, I was told there was nothing more that could be done for me. The odds lowered to a fifty percent chance of living two years. The cardiologist, almost as an aside, mentioned that my only hope lay in stem cell therapy but he knew little about it. I contacted St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney who were doing a clinical experimental group, but I fell outside their entry criteria as they were only treating arterial diseases.”

Rather than accept his future Peter took action and did an Internet search for any help he could find. He discovered a Thai -Israeli company called Theravitae who were treating end-stage cardiac patients in Bangkok with startling levels of success and contacted them. “I emailed and also spoke with their staff, who were endlessly patient of my many questions. I also spoke with several local Australian cardiologists who were mainly negative but who knew little about stem cell therapy for the failing heart, but what did I have to lose? So I went ahead and on October 4, 2005 I had some 250cc of my blood withdrawn which was flown to the laboratory. Five days later I had the blood, now mightily enriched with millions more stem cells, injected by catheter into my damaged and struggling heart. This simple and safe procedure took place at the Bangkok Heart Hospital.”

“I was very impressed with the hospital staff and facilities and the very high level of professionalism they all displayed. For three months nothing much seemed to be happening, but an MRI at four months showed my Ejection Fraction (a measure of the heart’s pumping efficiency) had risen from 22 % to 33 %. By six months I was feeling much better and I have continued to improve. My whole life has changed and despite having to cope with many personal problems my attitude and outlook are very positive. I now have a purpose for living which I had lost due to my health problems, so I am very thankful,” he said.

Not content with simply having stem cell therapy Peter also made changes to his diet, lifestyle and attitude to gain the maximum benefits from his medical treatment. He’s now a vegetarian, 20kg lighter and looking forward to becoming a parent again. He believes that all these factors, combining with his VesCell stem cell therapy’s work in repairing his heart, have given him a new lease on life.

“I’m deeply in love and have been given a second chance at life. Who could ask for more?” he said. “I’ve just had a complete medical check-up and all my vital statistics have improved markedly. But for me the greatest improvement has been that I can enjoy a far better quality of life and I have high expectations of a very positive future,” he added. “If you are beyond hope of treatment because of heart disease all is not lost. Almost every day research is being published that shows just how many seriously ill heart patients can be returned to a life they thought they had lost.”

(Jon Whyte is a freelance journalist living and working in Bangkok. He writes mainly about travel and health and is also a copywriter and editor. He can be contacted at jaibangkok@gmail.com.