Angsuman Chakraborty21 Jul 2005 04:46 am
The picture of health, Tony Wagner plays soccer, hockey and golf and is, in the words of his father, “just as obnoxious as a 12-year-old boy can be.”
And he scarcely remembers anything from his life-threatening bout with leukemia seven years ago, and nothing at all from his life-saving transplant of hematopoietic progenitor cells, derived from the blood found in umbilical cords.
“He’s living proof cord blood transplants save people’s lives,” said dad Mike Wagner of Chili.
Parents can go through private blood banks now to save umbilical cord blood in case their own children in the future develop some disorder, but it can be a costly proposition. Fees typically range from $1,000 to $1,800 per child, with a likely annual storage fee of about $100.
U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer has been touring New York in recent weeks, pushing federal legislation that would create a national infrastructure of saving and storing umbilical cord blood for the stem cells found there — cells that could be used to treat a host of blood diseases.
The bill - already passed by the House of Representatives and now before the Senate - would have the federal government pay for collection and storage of umbilical blood as well as set up national standards and a directory of the stem cells being stored, all at a cost of about $200 million a year. The cord blood would be saved at already-existing blood banks. The government, meanwhile, could save three times that by eliminating the costs of bone marrow transplants, Schumer said.
The end results would be that parents can have their childs cord blood saved as insurance against future illness without incurring financial burden.
Link [www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050719/NEWS01/507190335/1002/NEWS]
Filed under Advocacy, Cord Blood Banking | Comment Below
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Senator Chuck Schumer pushes for Cord Blood BillJuly 26th, 2005 The picture of health, Tony Wagner plays soccer, hockey and golf and is, in the words of his father, "just as obnoxious as a 12-year-old boy can be." He scarcely remembers anything from his life-threatening bout with leukemia seven years ago, and nothing at all from his life-saving transplant of hematopoietic stem cells, derived from the blood found in umbilical cords. "He's living proof cord blood transplants save people's lives," said dad Mike Wagner of Chili.
Stem Cell-Rich Umbilical Cord Blood is a Life SaverJune 26th, 2006 Brandyn Orr, 12, of Mesa was diagnosed with leukemia when he was 2 years old and relapsed when he was 6. He was treated with an umbilical cord blood transplant using the blood collected during the birth of his brother Devyn, 7.
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Information on Saving Lives through Umbilical Cord BloodAugust 25th, 2005 Umbilical Cord Blood is a precious commodity in treatment of diseases like leukemia, sickle cell anemia and immune deficiencies. Cord blood in rich in life saving stem cells.
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Unique Cord Blood Transplant Saves Women From LeukemiaApril 18th, 2006 Sheila Gannon was pregnant when she was diagnosed with leukemia, is alive and gave birth to her son Sawyer 2 weeks early, so she could also start chemotherapy, thanks to a unique transplant of umbilical cord blood from two different donors. It was the first time such a procedure had been performed in Colorado.
Umbilical Cord Blood Transplants Successful in Children with High-Risk Acute Lymphocytic LeukemiaJuly 16th, 2005 Researchers from Northwestern University have shown that children with high-risk acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) receiving umbilical cord blood transplants have similar outcomes to patients receiving related allogeneic stem cell transplants. The details of this comparative study were presented at the Third Annual International Umbilical Cord Blood Transplantation Symposium in Los Angeles, Calif., June 3-4, 2005.
Newborn Babies Saves Life With Umbilical Cord Blood DonationMay 8th, 2006 Most hospitals discard cord blood after baby's birth, despite the fact that this precious cord blood contains stem cells that can be used in transplants for as many as 80 serious medical problems. Those include the most prevalent types of leukemia, metabolic disorders like Tay-Sachs disease, blood-related conditions such as sickle cell anemia and severe anemia problems.
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