Stem cell treatment seems to be at the forefront, but many have opted for other types of medical treatment as well...there is no guarantee and many treatments have not been studied here in the US...it's almost like a roll of the dice at a craps table...again depending on what condition one would seeking relief for...even the physicians in China do state to not have high expectations..and you might guess the facilities you could visit would not be the same as Chinese citizens...it's a cash business....BD
BEIJING - They're paralyzed from diving accidents and car crashes, disabled by Parkinson's, or blind. With few options available at home in America, they search the Internet for experimental treatments — and often land on Web sites promoting stem cell treatments in China.
"People are looking for a cure," said Dr. Bruce Dobkin, a neurology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine, one of the study's authors. "They may come to do something based more on a gut feeling. It's like looking for a religious miracle."
Jim Savage, a Houston man with paralysis from a spinal cord injury, says he can move his right arm. Penny Thomas of Hawaii says her Parkinson's tremors are mostly gone. The parents of 6-year-old Rylea Barlett of Missouri, born with an optical defect, say she can see. But documentation is mostly lacking, and Western doctors warn that patients are serving as guinea pigs in a country that isn't doing the rigorous lab and human tests that are needed to prove a treatment is safe and effective.
Noting the lack of evidence, three Western doctors, undertook their own limited study. It involved seven patients with spinal cord injuries who chose to get fetal brain tissue injections at one hospital in China. The study reported "no clinically useful improvements" — even though most patients believed they were better. Five developed complications such as meningitis.
"Patients shouldn't have their expectations too high," Hu said. "For patients to think they can walk again may be too much at this stage," he said. He's now seeking venture capital to expand his web of treatment centers, labs and doctors and adapt proprietary techniques from researchers overseas. "There is real potential here for China to take the lead in stem cells," Hu said.
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