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4-year-old prepares for life-changing medical trip
By Alex Paul
Gazette-Times reporter
Diagnosed with cerebral palsy, boy will undergo stem cell infusion
With only two weeks to go before Corvallis residents Jinger and Mark Cain take their 4-year-old son, Dylan, to Durham, N.C., for what they hope will be a life-changing infusion of stem cells, the couple are “getting really excited.”
“We’re going to leave May 23, the infusion will take one or two hours on May 26, and we meet with a neurologist on May 28,” Mark Cain said. “We will fly home Friday” (May 29).
Dylan was oxygen-deprived at birth and later was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Although he has made amazing progress due to intensive daily therapy, he remains legally blind, cannot walk on his own and has a vocabulary of fewer than a dozen words.
At birth, the Cains banked Dylan’s umbilical blood, from which stem cells will be extracted by the Duke University School of Medicine staff. The stem cells will be infused back into Dylan’s own system. Thousands of similar procedures have taken place around the world, especially in China, with many patients experiencing marked medical improvements.
The Cains were recently told that Dylan had been accepted into the Duke program, but it’s going to cost about $19,000 for the procedure, follow-up and travel for the family.
To assist the family, the Oregon State University women’s volleyball team will host a “Wine and Dine” benefit dinner June 1 at the Aqua Seafood Restaurant & Bar, on First and Monroe.
Hors d’ oeuvres will be served at 6:30 p.m. and dinner is at 7 p.m.
The $100 ticket — which is tax deductible — includes a meal with a preset menu and service donated by Aqua, fine wine, and membership to The Spikers, the OSU volleyball team’s booster club.
Checks can be made out to Sparrow for Dylan. To learn more about Dylan’s life story, visit www.help4dylan.com.
RSVP by purchasing a ticket in advance by calling Laura Benzing at 737-7707 or
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, or Lisa Little at 207-4694 or
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.
Alex Paul can be contacted at
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or by calling 758-9526.
Banking on stem cells
By Alex Paul
Corvallis Gazette-Times
Wearing a New York Yankees T-shirt, 4-year-old Dylan Cain hurls a rubber ball across the living room of his parents’ Corvallis home with amazing punch for a 52-pound lefty.
If stem cell infusion at the Duke University School of Medicine in coming weeks is successful, it’s possible that Dylan, who has cerebral palsy, will someday be able to show off his pitching prowess on a real baseball diamond.
That scenario is well beyond the dreams of his parents, Mark and Jinger Cain. They will be ecstatic if the stem cell project — which will use stem cells collected from Dylan’s umbilical cord at birth — provides him with better sight and — miracle of miracles — the ability to walk.
Dylan was oxygen-deprived at birth and later was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Although he has some peripheral vision, he is legally blind, cannot walk on his own and has a vocabulary of fewer than a dozen words.
But what Dylan lacks in physical ability, he makes up for with a beaming smile and deep belly laugh that would warm the coldest heart. He also has the support of two loving parents who have been devoted to improving their son’s life since his birth on Dec. 16, 2004.
The living room of their duplex is filled with tables where they and volunteers work with Dylan every day, training his brain to remember tasks and stimulating learning. A recent cause to celebrate was the day Dylan used a towel bar his father attached to the side of a massage table to pull himself to his feet and grab some toys. It was, his mother said, a major breakthrough in a world filled with progress that is measured in tiny increments.
A decision made at Dylan’s birth may be a major turning point for the family, Jinger Cain said.
“We decided to bank Dylan’s umbilical cord blood,” she said. “The stem cells from that blood now have the potential to change Dylan’s life or, potentially, even for one of us down the road.”
Jinger was working at Hewlett-Packard when she and her husband decided to spend the $2,000. She now sells real estate, and Mark works part-time at Linn-Benton Community College. Medical costs have hit their financial resources hard, but they continue to seek the best for their son, often with the help of community fundraising projects.
“We had heard about banking cord blood, and we saw it as an insurance policy,” Mark said. “We were willing to take the chance.”
Dylan’s blood was stored with a company called ViaCord, based in Cambridge, Mass. In January, the family received a letter from ViaCord informing them that Duke University was willing to consider Dylan as part of its pediatric study based on stem cells.
“We almost put it in the shredder. It came in a plain envelope,” Jinger said. “I read it about 1 a.m. and cried. We had been looking into taking Dylan to China, where they have had tremendous success with stem cell cases.”
Jinger said because the stem cells come from Dylan’s own umbilical cord blood, they will be an exact match. There have been numerous stories worldwide of improvements in medical conditions even from partially matched cell infusions.
Jinger emphasized that the stem cells that will be used to treat Dylan are not embryonic; they are his own. No embryos were destroyed to collect the stem cells. In Germany, there have been successful tests using stem cells taken from bone marrow, Jinger said.
“The stem cells know where to go to attach themselves to damaged cells,” Jinger said. “Some people report seeing improvement in just days or a few weeks. There are stories about children who could not see when they went for treatment but could see lights when they flew home.”
Beike Biotechnology in China claims it has completed more than 13,000 stem cell transplants since 2001, with nearly 80 percent of its patients showing signs of improvement — some of them making remarkable progress.
The Cains haven’t been given an official timeline for their trip to North Carolina, but they expect it will be in late April or early May. They will travel on a weekend. Dylan will receive an evaluation on Monday and a cell infusion — which takes about one hour — on Tuesday. He will meet with a neurologist on Wednesday, and the family will return to Oregon.
At home, they will continue Dylan’s intense physical therapy and a wholesome, all-natural nutrition program in hopes of boosting the stem cell healing process.
The cost of their travel, the stem cell infusion and follow-up meetings is estimated to be about $19,000, which they don’t have, Jinger said. Over the past four years, they have spent every dime they had trying to help their son.
The Cains are realistic about their expectations and hopes for Dylan.
“We will take anything, no matter how little,” Jinger said. “Our hope is that he will get better vision, better body and muscle control. We would take any or all three. I originally thought his toughest challenge was going to be his blindness, but now I think it may be his inability to walk.”
Jinger has started a blog where she can share information with other parents of children with special medical needs.
“This isn’t just our journey,” Jinger said. “Other parents can gain from our experiences.”
To learn more about Dylan, or to donate, see www.help4dylan.com.
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