Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
foetal stem cells rather than the embryonic stem cells offered by
Nu Tech Mediworld (
http://www.medra.com
). Medra claims to offer
cures for almost everything and there is a long list of patient
testimonies on the website that indicates a range of positive
outcomes. Targeted at recruiting patients from the US, the company
and its clinic are based in the Dominican Republic. Part of the
treatment for US-based patients includes transport from Florida to
the Dominican Republic.
The stories from patients include a number of common elements.
One of these is a life-changing event, either in the form of an injury
or the development of a critical life-limiting illness. This might seem
like an obvious point, but the significance of this is that these are
people who have experienced a significant health event that has had
long-term implications on their quality of life. That is to say, what
the patients experience is not just serious trauma or illness, but one
that has profound implications for their future quality of life.
In the case of one patient, the family describes an illness that
afflicted their baby son in which they were eventually told to start
making preparations for his funeral as he would die within the next
day or so ('Patient letter: Benjamin - ruptured aneurysm', online at:
http://www.medra.com
, 2010). Instead of dying he actually stabilized,
and his mother began a self-education process that eventually
resulted in her finding out about Medra and their treatment options.
This is by no means unusual for a parent of a sick child and there are
countless examples of a parent's tenacity in the face of conventional
wisdom. What was more unusual in this case is that the family
elected to have him treated with an unproven stem cell therapy.
The second component of Medra's patients' stories is always about
an inability of modern medicine to provide any resolution of the
scenario they are faced with. Another patient letter on the Medra
website describes unexplainable symptoms developing after what was
supposed to be a routine operation for back pain ('Patient letter:
Robert - severe chronic pain', online at:
http://www.medra.com
,
2010). Countless doctor's visits and years of excruciating pain led this
patient to begin finding out more about what was then a quite
controversial field of treatment, namely stem cells. Describing being
laughed at by his own doctor this patient began searching the Internet,
