• Dr. Kurtzberg at Duke Hospital in North Carolina, has done 15 newborn transplants on babies with Krabbe Disease to date.

• Our baby will be transplanted right here in our hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia at BC Children's Hospital, by a wonderful transplant team, headed by Dr. Kirk Schultz.  Our baby will be the first little one to be transplanted for Krabbe disease in Western Canada, and the second for all of Canada.

• All newborn transplants have gone extremely well.  Frank and I have been blessed to meet these beautiful living miracles.

• The findings to date are that newborns who have been transplanted are delayed developmentally for the first year, however soon catch up to 'normal' infants.

• All of the newborn transplanted children have 'normal' cognitive abilities.  About half of the newborn transplanted children walk 'normally', the other half are 'normal' cognitively, with varying degrees of motor difficulties (ie. feeding, walking, coordination, etc.).  This is why early transplantation and early therapies are essential.

• The New England Journal of Medicine recently published an article, "Transplantation of Umbilical-Cord Blood in Babies with Infantile Krabbe's Disease", by Maria L. Escolar and Joanne Kurtberg (both well-known physicians to Krabbe families) as well as other dedicated physicians (May 19, 2005).  The article compares symptomatic infants and asymptomatic newborns.  We are so encouraged by the newborn results.  It was exciting to finally read the results that we have already seen in these amazing children, many of whom we have been blessed to meet: Link to Transplant Article.

• "Duke researchers have just discovered, for the first time, that damaged organs are amazingly repaired by the cord cells.  It’s a landmark finding with broad implications. 'The cells are actually traveling to damaged tissues and changing into the cells of those tissues and repairing the damage,' reports Dr. Kurtzberg.  

For example, on a brain MRI of a child with Krabbe’s, there is reversal of brain tissue destruction. A fluffy spot is destroyed tissue. Two years later, the fluff is gone -- the brain repaired. So, if these umbilical cord cells can actually go to the heart and the brain and replace cells destroyed by inherited diseases in children, then the next logical question is, what about adults?  For example, stroke victims who’ve lost brain cells, or heart attack victims who’ve lost functioning heart tissue?" (Source: "Stem Cells Believed To Reverse Disease, Heal Damaged Organs" -- Medical Milestone Hoped To Save Children With Deadly Diseases, Dr. Mike Rosen)

 Click on the Butterfly to learn about the Newborn Transplant Process...