My new perspecitve on stem cell research

[margotb822]

I've always focused on spinal damage as the cause celebre of stem cell research, but I learned something new the other day.

One of my friends was in a devistating motorcycle a few years back and has a permanent limp due to the amount of damage done to his left leg. I was talking with him the other day and he mentioned that the damage done to his femoral artery is actually causing his leg/hip to slowly decay. He will have to have his leg amputated at the hip in the next 15 years or so. Unless stem cell research is able to progress to the point where he can have surgery to regrow the decaying/damaged area.

I can't imagine being 26 and knowing that, by the time I'm 40, I will have to be an amputee. In the area of spinal damage and being paralyzed, stem cell research gives people the hope that they will walk/move freely again, but this just blows my mind. He can walk now, and stem cell research is the only hope he has of continuing that capability.

What must it be like to know that your ability to walk has an expiration date?

I didn't realize that stem cell research could not only give people the hope of regaing freedom, but is the only hope for some in maintaining that same freedom.

[truedelphi]

1. Please encourage your friend to look into clinics in Europe

And research done there.

Then he should start saving his money.

In fact -- now that I think about it, if he has some fifteen years or so, the research in ERurope will allow clinics in India to perform the same cutting edge science. Whatever stem cell research finds out through labs in Paris or SIngapore, those results will probably be good to go anywhere in the World but here.

(Already 60 Minutes has a show on how Americans go to India for things like triple bypass surgery as India has just as many advancements in medical science and a much less expensive cost.)

[margotb822]

2. Thanks!

I will definitely let him know. When we talked, he didn't seem to have looked into other options.

[truedelphi]

3. I had my eyes opened to the reality of "America is the best"

Way back in the late seventies. I was on a three month tour of Scandanavia - I had stupidly left my Coke Bottle sized glasses at home.

Had to visit a Norwegian opthamolgist and get glasses there or experience Europe as a blur.

I was issued a pair of eyeglasses with paper thin lens - these would be common here about four or five years later. I was super impressed!

And this was in an area that was considered backwards in terms of what most of Europe offered!