Cerebral palsy patients go abroad for stem cell treatments

The families of those who suffer from cerebral palsy will do virtually anything to help out their loved ones. Some even go overseas to seek the latest cerebral palsy treatments. The parents of Kara Anderson, a 9-year-old who has cerebral palsy, were told by specialists that their daughter would likely be confined to a wheelchair because of twisting in her leg muscles, according to the Washington Post. However, the Andersons had heard of the improvements of cerebral palsy patients who received injections of stem cells. Stem cell treatment is not available in the U.S. but is offered in places like China, Brazil and Russia. Some believe that stem cells will one day be able to cure a number of common, and currently untreatable or hard to treat ailments like heart attack, stroke and blindness. But scientists warn that there still needs to be extensive testing before stem cells can be used safely. "People flock to the words 'stem cells' because they rightly feel that the potential is enormous. I'm right there with them, but there's a misalignment of progress in the scientific and medical communities with the public perception of the power of stem cells," Hans Keirstead of the University of California at Irvine, told the news source. The March of Dimes estimates that two to three children in every 1,000 suffers from cerebral palsy.