HOUSTON, Texas (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Right now, nearly five million
people are suffering from congestive heart failure. For some, a bypass will
work. But for others, there's little doctors can do. Now, some patients are
healing their own hearts -- using their own stem cells.
When lieutenant Ronnie Smallwood isn't working
he's fishing! And when he's not
fishing
he's thinking about fishing. Lieutenant Smallwood has been part of the
public safety department for 27 years and those years have taken a toll on his
heart.
"By the end of the work day, all I wanted to do was go to the house and on the
couch until bedtime," Smallwood says.
He suffered from congestive heart failure. Heart bypass failed -- twice! One of
his last options
to heal himself with his own stem cells.
"The idea behind stem cell therapy is that by giving cells into certain places
where a muscle may lack blood flow, we can stimulate the growing of new blood
vessels," says Emerson Perin, M.D., Ph.D., a cardiologist at the Texas Heart
Institute in Houston, Texas.
Dr. Perin took Smallwood's own bone marrow, filtered out stem cells and then --
with a catheter -- precisely placed Smallwood's stem cells in the part of the
heart that needed them the most
with no risk of rejection!
"What we are doing with the stem cells is hopefully creating better blood flow
to areas of the heart that dont get good blood flow," Dr. Perin says.
"They're giving me a natural bypass," Smallwood says. "Naturally growing
arteries. How it's done it, I don't know."
Lieutenant Smallwood is now getting blood flow to the lower part of his heart.
"I started noticing the pain wasn't near as bad. I've got energy again," he
says.
And now that he's feeling better, Smallwood is ready to give up his desk job and
spend his days at the lake.
"Now I'm back to fishing and lovin' every minute of it," he says.
It can take up to four months for patients to feel the effects of stem cells
implanted in their heart. Doctors don't consider this a substitute for bypass
surgery, but a last resort when bypass and other methods don't work.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Texas Heart Institute
Houston, Texas
http://www.texasheart.org
Heart Information Center
(800) 292-2221
