NZ Herald – Wednesday 16 December 2009 – By Bonnie Malkin [in Sydney]
An Australian man who was confined to a wheelchair by multiple sclerosis has made a remarkable recovery after receiving ground-breaking stem-cell treatment.
Ben Leahy, 20 was diagnosed with the disease in 2008 and lost the ability to stand within a few months.
However, a new procedure has helped him to regain his health and he is now walking again. The treatment targets the immune system, which in MS patients turns in on itself, causing nerve damage that can lead to blurred vision, loss of balance and paralysis.
Doctors used a new technique to remove stem cells from Leahy’s bone marrow before using chemicals to destroy all his immune cells. The stem cells were then transplanted back into his body to replenish the immune system – effectively resetting it.
Doctor Colin Andrews, a neurologist from Canberra, said the positive results had surprised doctors.
“At the moment there’s a good chance we may have arrested the disease.” he said. “He walks pretty well, there’s only some mild weakness in his right leg and some visual loss in one eye and apart from that he’s very intact.”
Andrews said doctors had previously been reluctant to use the treatment because the risk of death was estimated to be around 8 percent. But improvements in the techniques meant the risk was now 1 per cent. – Telegraph Group Ltd
