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China Offers Unproven Medical Treatments
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More than a year after returning home, Hrabik says he has nearly complete use of his left hand, with improvement in the right. He can work on his customized 1993 Nissan 240SX, a modified number complete with hand controls and racing seats.
He said he was able to move his left fingers within days of that first injection of umbilical cord stem cells into his spinal cord. There's been little progress since he left China, but he called the incremental changes significant.
"I just wanted something back, no matter what it was," said Hrabik, who attributes some of the changes to the physical therapy that he had in China.
Beike founder Sean Hu, who returned from abroad in 1999 with a doctorate in biochemistry, said the company has treated more than 1,000 patients, including 300 foreigners from 40 different countries. The only side effects have been slight fevers and headaches among a small percentage of patients, according to Hu.
He said patients with trauma injuries experience the most dramatic improvements; those with degenerative diseases such as ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, tend to improve initially but then slide back to their former condition within months.
"Patients shouldn't have their expectations too high," Hu said. "For patients to think they can walk again may be too much at this stage," he said.
He's now seeking venture capital to expand his web of treatment centers, labs and doctors and adapt proprietary techniques from researchers overseas.
"There is real potential here for China to take the lead in stem cells," Hu said.
Also offering treatments is Tiantan Puhua in Beijing, a joint venture between Asia's largest neurological hospital and an American medical group. Tiantan's sunny, sparkling rooms are a far cry from the dour facilities and staff at most Chinese hospitals. Diseases treated there range from stroke and spinal cord injuries to cerebral palsy and ataxia, a rare neurological condition that can cause slurred speech.
The hospital says its stem cell injections are combined with daily, three-hour doses of intravenous drugs designed to stimulate production of the patient's own stem cells. Physical rehabilitation and Chinese medicine are also part of the plan. A standard two-month course of treatment costs $30,000 to $35,000.
"We want to see actual improvements," said Dr. Sherwood Yang, head of the hospital's management team. "We are giving them another option at the highest level of safety."
Yang contends that 90 percent of patients show some results, with the rest suffering disabilities that are too far advanced to respond to treatment.