Dr. Charles Mok describes using umbilical stem-cell injections for chronic spinal cord injuries since 2011. An 80-year-old regained the ability to walk and feed himself after three treatments; a man in his 30s went from non-ambulatory to walking with assistance. Mok acknowledges limited evidence and financial risk, but argues patients should have the right to try when standard options fail.
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Regenerative medicine would be like the platelet rich plasma or the stem cells. We've been doing this since 2011. I was patient number one with the rotator cuff tear. We had been doing this for a while. Stem cell treatment, mostly the joints, some other conditions, well, Ms. parkinson's, other things with varied results. I had a patient come in, he was in his 80s, and he had had a spinal cord injury from a car accident about four years earlier. And he was in the nursing home and he was actually had a successful business. But this, this injury was so devastating. Couldn't really feed himself and he couldn't walk at all. And he came in to get stem cell treatment with his family. And I advised him that this is, this is not going to work. The animal study showed that the longer you were out from the injury, the less likely it was to work. And we weren't even sure at the time how stem cells would work on spinal cord injuries. There have been various different ways we would deploy the stem cell for spinal cord injuries, putting them into the spinal column with a lumbar puncture. He came in, he was kind of persistent. I said, well, I don't see how it would work. He goes, well, here's the thing, is that I'm in my 80s, I'm in a nursing home, and I can afford this, and if it doesn't work, I'll forgive you. We treated him, I think three times with umbilical stem cells, which were widely available at the time. And he went from living in a nursing home to not walking, not being able to feed himself, to being easily able to feed himself, to walking with crutches or a walker, unassisted by other human beings, to being discharged from the nursing home, to living back at home, to being back involved with his business. Then we subsequently, we had a young man in his 30s who had a spinal cord injury from diving. He was 34. He was in a nursing home, could not walk. He was able to move his arms, but they weren't particularly strong. I haven't kept in track with him in the last few years, but this was back about 2018 and 19. But he went from totally incapacitated to malfunctioned with crutches and devices. So he's not back to normal, not running or riding a bike, but able to walk, able to function on his own. And I think the right to try is, is the right to try because there was nothing to say that would be harmful, and there was nothing to say that it would work. There was some logic from animal studies and some limited human reports. So we decided to move forward. And the biggest risk for him was financially. He advised me that was not a concern of his. That's kind of an exciting story from a regenerative standpoint. You got to weigh the risk of it not working to the risk of just living with things the way they are. I think doctors tend to say, well, you're better off. Since I can't guarantee the results of this intervention, maybe you're better off not doing it. Maybe the patient should have the main choice in that.
