A New Life for Maia

Three months ago 4 year old Maia Freidlander became the first New Zealander to undergo experimental treatment in the United States, using her own umbilical cord blood.

Maia was born along with her twin sister 6 weeks premature. Though while her twin suffered no ill affects, Maia was afflicted with birth-related brain injury, which causes developmental delays. Wile her sister, Ariel, hit all her developmental milestones about six months early, Maia did not learn to crawl till she was three. She had difficulty walking, talking and even chewing her food without choking.

For three years the little girl went through therapy for six hours a day with little progress to be seen.

"Our lives revolved around her therapy regime but we couldn't see much improvement," her father, Daniel, said.

In February Maia's Parents met Mary Schneider, an American mother whose son, Ryan, was the first to undergo cord blood transfusion for his brain injury at Duke University in North Carolina. Now five years later he is developmentally normal.

There have been more than 50 other children with brain injuries treated through Duke's reinfusion programme.

So in August, with the hope of a cure, Maia and her mother, Jillian, traveled to the U.S to receive the life changing cord blood transfusion. It was a two hour process that infused Maia with cord blood that her parents had taken and stored at birth.

Within days her mother could see improvements. Her lackadaisical stair left her eyes and her concentration and coordination had greatly improved. Sher is now able to attend kindergarten just like all the other kids her age.

"She's like a different child - talking, hugging us, playing ... She's had a second chance at life and we can now have the family life we'd always dreamed of."

The Friedlander's say that the total cost of the trip and the procedure totaled $50,000, not including the $5,000 spent on storing the cord blood. The cost is just too much for most families with kids in need to afford. "We would like to see the reinfusion procedure available to families here" said the family.

It's so positive to see people seeing so much success and progress with this therapy. It is essentially curing conditions that before would have someone with a far depleted quality of life. Also since their own cord blood taken from their umbilical cords at birth is being used it is more exciting. It opens the opportunity for everyone to have the chance to provide a cure for their child as long as they are able to afford the storage costs every year. Ethical issues are also eliminated because their is no need for the used of highly controversial embryonic stem cells. It just bother me that there are so many families out there unable to afford the procedure of the traveling costs so their children will have to suffer through life.

Part 1

Part 2