This is a happy story of a young girl with Leukaemia . She developed a reaction to the Bone Marrow transplant. Osiris stem cell product saved her.
NEW ORLEANS - She was only in kindergarten when doctors gave her family the bad news.
Now she's one of the first in Louisiana to try a new treatment for people who get gravely ill after a bone marrow transplant.
The last three years of Sami Smith's life have been physically and emotionally painful.
"I literally, they try to scare me and they can't, because I've been through the scariest thing that you can," said Smith, 9, of Ponchatoula.
Her mother noticed she was napping more and bruising. Doctors diagnosed AML, a type of leukemia or blood cancer. Had she not gotten to the doctor then, she would not have made it much longer. A Child's Wish sent her to Disney World. The good news, one of her teen sisters Mary Hannah, 13, was a good bone marrow match. The transplant worked and Sami was cancer free.
Then devastating news. Sami got a condition called GvHD (Graft-versus-host disease) where the new marrow launches a painful attack on the recipient's body. It's the leading cause of transplant-related death.
"She was in horrible pain. She didn't want lights. She didn't want sound. We'd just sit for days on end in silence," her mother, Gabriella Smith remembers sadly.
Doctors say that 15 to 50 percent of the children who get a bone marrow transplant end up with GvHD and there's even a higher risk in adult patients who get a bone marrow transplant.
Every treatment Sami tried failed. Then as a last hope, doctors at Children's Hospital tried a new type of cellular therapy called Prochymal (remestemcel-L). It's the world's first approved stem cell treatment. Sami got 12 infusions. It worked.
"Yes, it worked and it was amazing. It took her about two infusions before we started seeing that her diarrhea subsided," said Dr. Lolie Yu, the director and division chief of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology at LSU Health Sciences Center and the stem cell transplant program at Children's Hospital and LSUHSC.. "After the fourth infusion she was able to eat and feel a little bit better. It's very, very optimistic for her as far as her future is concerned."
http://www.wwltv.com/news/local/Stem-cell-treatment-offers-hope-to--159254045.html
NEW ORLEANS - She was only in kindergarten when doctors gave her family the bad news.
Now she's one of the first in Louisiana to try a new treatment for people who get gravely ill after a bone marrow transplant.
The last three years of Sami Smith's life have been physically and emotionally painful.
"I literally, they try to scare me and they can't, because I've been through the scariest thing that you can," said Smith, 9, of Ponchatoula.
Her mother noticed she was napping more and bruising. Doctors diagnosed AML, a type of leukemia or blood cancer. Had she not gotten to the doctor then, she would not have made it much longer. A Child's Wish sent her to Disney World. The good news, one of her teen sisters Mary Hannah, 13, was a good bone marrow match. The transplant worked and Sami was cancer free.
Then devastating news. Sami got a condition called GvHD (Graft-versus-host disease) where the new marrow launches a painful attack on the recipient's body. It's the leading cause of transplant-related death.
"She was in horrible pain. She didn't want lights. She didn't want sound. We'd just sit for days on end in silence," her mother, Gabriella Smith remembers sadly.
Doctors say that 15 to 50 percent of the children who get a bone marrow transplant end up with GvHD and there's even a higher risk in adult patients who get a bone marrow transplant.
Every treatment Sami tried failed. Then as a last hope, doctors at Children's Hospital tried a new type of cellular therapy called Prochymal (remestemcel-L). It's the world's first approved stem cell treatment. Sami got 12 infusions. It worked.
"Yes, it worked and it was amazing. It took her about two infusions before we started seeing that her diarrhea subsided," said Dr. Lolie Yu, the director and division chief of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology at LSU Health Sciences Center and the stem cell transplant program at Children's Hospital and LSUHSC.. "After the fourth infusion she was able to eat and feel a little bit better. It's very, very optimistic for her as far as her future is concerned."
http://www.wwltv.com/news/local/Stem-cell-treatment-offers-hope-to--159254045.html