Seventeen-year-old Tim Harrington dreamed of playing basketball from his childhood. He is on the basketball court at his Earlville home, set up on a dirt stretch next to the family’s barn, playing one-on-one against fellow incoming Indian Creek High School senior Trevor Foster. Tim goes up for a rebound and misses, watching the ball bounce off the end of his thumb. Reality jars him instantaneously and the smile leaves his face. He had realized that because of his poor vision, one of several side effects due to having a dead area in his brain from being oxygen-deprivation at birth, make it too dangerous for Tim to play.

The parents of the boy recalled the night when Tim had slept through the night without uttering a peep during his childhood period. Soon afterward, they learned Tim didn’t react to sounds and he didn’t recognize his parents until they got very close. Tim would never see, hear or learn the same as their older children. His parents would always make it a point, however, to never treat Tim different. Their life’s goal would be making sure no one else did either. Now, they hope that will be easier.

It takes six years for the father of the child Bryan Harrington to come across the stem cell therapy treatment. Since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesn’t allow stem cell therapy, the Harrington’s had to look outside of the country. Tim and his parents would fly to San Diego. Tim’s treatment would take place in Zona Rio, a neighborhood in Tijuana. Tim’s family declined to release the name of the doctor or clinic involved, but the main treatment centers in Zona Rio are Stem Cell Biotherapy and Dr. Ramirez del Rio.

The clinic says that the stem cells, which come from umbilical cord blood, will move to the brain after being injected into Tim’s spine. There, they hopefully can be taught to become brain cells and regenerate Tim’s dead spot, restoring his vision, hearing, speech and brain function. The danger involved is the unknown. The clinic told the family they have never seen any negative effects. Although stem cells certainly could lead to the answer, the clinics in Tijuana aren’t tightly regulated and thus they have never submitted reports for scientific clinical analysis. They give similar injection treatments to patients with everything from Parkinson’s Disease and Lou Gehrig’s Disease to paralysis, cerebral palsy and brain damage like Tim’s.

That was the story of the past. And now after several years, he is like any other normal teenager and shares a normal teenage age routine. As Tim drives to the basketball on the court outside his home, he makes another shot - albeit a little awkwardly - this time a layup. These days, when dreams seem like reality and make-believe could become the truth, Tim’s daydreams make him feel like the happiest 17-year-old in the world.

Source: Daily Chronicle