Patient Praises Maverick Stem Cell Doc

By Sky News SkyNews - Tuesday, May 27 08:57 am
A man who is paralysed from the neck down says he can now breathe on his own 
after having controversial embryonic stem cell treatment in India.
Perry Cross is the most high-profile patient to have travelled to India to 
be injected with the cells - which are banned in his own country Australia 
and most of the West.
He was left a quadriplegic after being injured playing rugby when just 19 
years old and has no movement below his neck.
He has to be connected to a ventilator to breathe and has spent the past 14 
years searching for treatment which might help him regain any movement.
During this time, Mr Cross met Superman actor Christopher Reeve and became 
the actor's ambassador for stem cell research in Australia.
He has since spoken at the United Nations and is a regular contributor to 
television and radio debates on the virtues of the research.
He also set up a Foundation to raise money to help find new ways to fight 
paralysis, which is supported by star Australian cricketer Adam Gilchrist.
"After 14 years of no change at all since my accident, I can now breathe on 
my own," he told Sky News.
"You know, you put your lottery numbers in every week and I feel by coming 
here, my lottery numbers have finally come up."
It took a huge leap of faith to travel to India.
The doctor who is administering the stem cells is a controversial figure in 
her own country and abroad.
Dr Geeta Shroff is viewed as a bit of a maverick within the medical world 
because of her fierce determination to do her work under her own terms and 
in her own way.
She researched her treatment without any grants or financial help and 
virtually single-handedly developed it over two years, beginning the work in 
a small lab she set up in her garage.
She now has two hospitals in the capital New Delhi where she treats her own 
countrymen and women who have terminal conditions or incurable afflictions.
But she also has an increasing number of international patients - mainly 
from countries like Australia, America and Britain where there are much 
tighter controls on the use of embryonic stem cell treatment.
Consequently she has fallen out with much of the conventional medical 
establishment for steadfastly refusing to publish papers outlining her 
methods, research and technique.
Instead she has applied for a patent on her treatment to stop others from 
copying and marketing her work.
Dr Shroff's critics point out that without knowing exactly what she is 
injecting and without proper clinical trials, it is impossible to say 
whether there are any long term side-effects and whether the treatment is 
safe.
She insists that over the five years she has been administering her 
treatment no patient has shown any adverse reactions.
Under Indian law, she is allowed to treat terminally ill and incurable 
conditions such as Parkinson's Disease, spinal injury and Alzheimers.
But this has led her detractors to claim she is offering false hope to 
desperate people and is essentially using them as guinea pigs.
Perry Cross - along with many of the 500 other patients Dr Shroff is 
treating - is unconcerned by the controversy.
"I cannot tell you how restricting my life is in so many ways," he says.
"I can't breathe on my own, I can't bathe on my own. I can't swim or get 
wet, the list of things I can't do are a mile long. Why wouldn't I try 
everything?"
His team of carers who look after him 24/7 are astonished at his progress in 
the last two months since he travelled to India and started receiving 
injections every day.
Most of them have been with him for many years.
"This is massive," said one, "We have tried so many times over the years to 
get him off the ventilator but never could. It's amazing."
It has given him hope that with more stem cell treatment he may even be able 
to develop movement elsewhere in his body.
"Even if I managed to move a finger or one hand, it would be worth it," he 
says.

Rayilyn Brown
Board Member AZNPF
Arizona Chapter National Parkinson Foundation
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