Surgical first in Ha Noi hospital

The one-year-old baby suffering from brain paralysis will have stem cells injected into his blood and spinal cord to replace or support the injured brain tissue three or four times. The operation, which already appears to be working, was the first of its kind performed in Viet Nam. — VNS Photo Quang Duy

The operation, which already appears to be working, was the first of its kind performed in Viet Nam. Doctors will continue the therapy, until, hopefully, the infant starts to recover.

The boy, simply known as Bui Duy, has been suffering from the ailment since he was 10 months' old. The symptoms of the ailment are mainly a lack of body movement.

Cerebral palsy is neither genetic nor an infectious disease and thus is not contagious. Most cases arise at or about the time of birth.

The baby was first treated for sepsis (blood poisoning), which was accompanied by diarrhoea, high fever and convulsions. Doctors thought that the boy might never recover.

The blood poisoning left him with a brain starved of oxygen, which caused body stiffening, breathing difficulties, problems in eating and sleeping as well as communicating - in other words, cerebral palsy.

"The doctors said that my son was too young for acupuncture or traditional medicine, the usual forms of treatment in Viet Nam. Stem-cell therapy became his last hope for recovery," said Tuan, the baby's father.

Last Friday, the boy received his first injection of stem cells.

Nguyen Thanh Liem, director of Vinmec Hospital, said that the stem cells came from the baby's bone marrow. They were injected into his blood and spinal cord to replace or support the injured brain tissue.

Four days after the injection, Bui Duy still had muscle contractions, but they were less serious and frequent. He is scheduled to have a second injection of bone-marrow cells on Friday.

Stem-cell therapy has been widely used in many countries to treat cerebral palsy. Researches in the United States and Europe said that 60-70 per cent of those treated showed improvements in mobility and linguistic capabilities.

Following the stem cell breakthrough in treating diseases, the Vinmec hospital is underway preparing to treat another once incurable brain ailment, autism, which often leave children unable to communicate properly.

According to Liem, clinical trials of stem cell therapy on children with autism have been conducted in America, India and China. Results show that up to 70 per cent showed varying degrees of recovery. This is considered promising as many as 200,000 Vietnamese children suffer from autism.

The cost of stem-cell treatment ranges from VND120-150 million ($5,800-7,200).