(CBS) — One West Chicago family made an 8,000 mile journey to India so six siblings, diagnosed with Lyme disease, could get stem cell treatments that they couldn’t receive here in the U.S.A.
The six brothers and sisters, ages 9 to 19, documented their eight-week journey in a New Delhi Hospital in India.
Their parents, Jim and Wendy, call it their last ditch effort, their only hope after nine years of searching for answers, after seeing endless amounts of doctors who couldn’t treat Lyme disease. In the short video above the family talk about their journey and the results so far.
“Three of them had sudden onset hearing loss,” Wendy Sweeney said. “They had malabsorption syndrome, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, they had parasites.”
Four of the six kids had to be taken out of school because of crippled immune systems. Two of them couldn’t leave the house. But then, an opportunity to get their lives back from a doctor in India
“I know people always say, ‘how can six kids have Lyme disease?’” Jim Sweeney said. “I don’t know.”
“Were we skeptical? Yeah!” Jim said. “I was definitely skeptical to the point I said let’s just take the three sickest because we’re risking everything. If this doesn’t work, we’re going to come home and lose our house.”
They Sweeney’s got home two weeks ago more in debt, but healthier and happier.
“In India, they gave me my life back,” Dylan said. “It was like I had been born again.”
There are currently no registered studies underway in the U.S. for stem cells and Lyme disease.
