Bernard Van Zyl
Stem cells and stem cell therapy! Many believe that stem cell therapy may lie somewhere in the future. That is not the case, and I am living proof that stem cell therapies are already available. They are repairing hearts, rebuilding livers, assisting in the cure of cancer and a multitude of other diseases. Popular broadcast and print media led me to believe that stem cell therapy is a long way off, held back by presidential order and political factions. I am one of the lucky ones. I found my way into a stem cell clinical trial that repaired my badly damaged heart and restored my life after I had come too close to death for comfort. There were only 24 of us in the Phase I stem cell clinical trial. We had all come for the same purpose; to ease the frightening pain in our chests and to try to stay alive. We were just a few of the tens of millions of people with similar problems who would ultimately benefit if the therapy under test proved to be successful. All 24 patients were very lucky to be selected for the pioneering stem cell clinical trial. In current medical practice, patients with such severe heart disease suffer episodes of severe heart pain (angina) and die slow deaths from congestive heart failure, their lungs filling with blood that their weakened hearts could not pump out to their bodies. We no longer face this grim prospect because of the amazing capabilities of stem cells. Uniquely, they can multiply themselves into large numbers and change themselves into any type of cells needed by the body, including brain cells, muscle tissue, and liver and kidney tissue.
