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Sky News Miracle Stem Cell Cure? Updated: 11:42, Friday April 13, 2007 An Australian woman who was told she would never walk again after a car accident, is up on her feet, weeks after getting controversial embryonic stem cell treatment in India. Sonya Smith, aged 45, has told Sky News correspondent Alex Crawford her progress is nothing short of a miracle. Her own doctors told her to prepare for life in a wheelchair and she spent 18 months desperately trying to get help. Then she heard about Dr Geeta Shroff in India and flew more than 6,000 miles from Brisbane to try out the treatment in New Delhi. Dr Shroff is a one-woman operation who runs a private hospital where she treats with human embryonic stem cells more than 300 patients who have varying diseases and problems. Now, after having about eight weeks of injections, Mrs Smith has regained bladder and bowel control; her leg muscles are growing and she says she can feel deep sensation in her thighs and feet. Despite widespread scepticism, she is convinced: "It is definitely the stem cells," she says, "I can feel my thighs where before I couldn't." Dr Shroff's critics think it is too good to be true and the doctor has not helped herself by refusing to fully explain her technique or how she has come up with the formula. They say she is being irresponsible; that with no proper human trials using human embryonic stem cells is ethically wrong and that she is using her patients as guinea pigs. Dr Shroff rejects criticism Dr Shroff says she has fully documented her findings, that she conforms to her own country's guidelines and the proof is in her patients. 'These are people who are desperate and who have no hope," Dr Shroff says "I have given them hope. What is wrong with that?" Sky News first reported on Dr Shroff's work in January 2006. We interviewed dozens of her patients and have spoken to many several times since. None complains of side effects. None has demonstrated any side-effects and all have shown signs of improvement in their respective conditions. Of her 300 patients, more than 50 are spinal cord injuries. Others have Alzheimers, motor neurone disease, Parkinsons - and all believe they are improving. Dr Shroff will not give away her secrets just yet, but if her techniques are doing what she is claiming, they are a huge breathrough. So far there are no known human clinical trials using human embryonic stem cells - Britain is still at the research stage. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn