Category Archives: A Welcome Review

A Welcome Review

Eric Drew: A Story of Cord Blood Saving a Leukemia Patient

Hey Everyone, New to Cord Blood Banking and want to here how the process works… Cord Blood Donation Process Explained Otherwise, I found some pretty cool info on this dude Eric Drew. His story is quite remarkable. The basics are that he got a cord blood transplant when he had leukemia real bad. He survived to tell about it and is now doing very well.

He flew to Minnesota and met with the doctors and found that they were ready to try an even more experimental procedure – a “double cord blood” transplant. There was a higher risk to this new procedure, but it appeared to be his best chance for long-term survival and recovery.

He now celebrates his second Birthday on July 23, 2004, his stem cell transplant day. On that date, his old immune system died and a brand new “re-booted” system was born. His one year test results show 100% remission from the leukemia, and I am feeling better than I have felt since his diagnosis nearly three years ago.

Here’s an inspiring video from NBC15 about Eric Drew Miracle of Medicine

What is Cord Blood and Can it Help Your Baby?

Cord blood is the blood found in the umbilical cord after a baby is born. It is becoming increasingly popular to bank this cord blood. The reason? The umbilical cord blood contains stem cells.What are stem cells and why could they be important to the future health of your baby?

Stem cells from cord blood are cells that can create other kinds of beneficial blood cells. These other types of blood cells can be used to combat a variety of diseases that attack the immune system from certain blood diseases to certain varieties of cancers. As medical knowledge continues to advance it is also possible that a number of other diseases might be treatable with this umbilical cord blood.

Saving stem cells from cord blood is becoming a popular option because unlike bone marrow stem cell retrieval it is much easier to harvest and less dangerous to the patient. In fact, the procedure to collect cord blood from the baby at birth is painless for the baby and won’t interrupt the birth process.

Another advantage of stem cells from cord blood is that there appears to be less chance of rejection from the host once the cells are introduced making it easier in the case of transplants and other uses. Add to that the fact that banked cord blood is much more readily accessible than searching for a bone marrow donor through the bone marrow registries and you have an option that makes cord blood seemingly preferable to bone marrow for use in transplants.

Is cord blood preservation and storage economically feasible though?

That remains to be seen. Although the likelihood of one ever having to use the cord blood is remote, the fact that you may have a bank account with cord blood can provide many with a peace of mind unmatched. Having said that, the jury is still out as to whether using the stem cell blood for your own child is effective or not. For this reason, one should consult a doctor well-versed in the knowledge of the benefits and perils of stem cell transplantation prior to using stored cord blood or even setting up a cord blood bank account.

Using a cord blood bank to store the cord blood for the future use of your child could be important for families that have a history of some cancers or genetic disorders. In this case having the umbilical cord blood in storage is an option that could be explored. There are an increasing number of cord blood banks that handle cord blood storage. Usually there is an initial outlay that may run up to a couple of thousand dollars followed by a yearly maintenance fee.

Two of the most prominent cord blood banks include the Cord Blood Registry and Viacord. Stored cord blood from the Cord
Blood Registry has been responsible for more transplant blood than any other cord blood bank to date. They, like their counterparts, have recommendations from medical professionals on their site.

A parent can also donate the cord blood of their baby to be made available to others via a public cord blood bank. One caveat here though is that even though this is a noble option and one that could very well prolong the lives of others in need there is more red tape involved as the disease history of the parents must be tested, analyzed and confirmed often making it an expensive option. In the end, is cord blood donation a wise option? On the positive side you have the improved health possibilities and potential future technological advances that may come up with more valuable uses of the stored cord blood. On the negative side you have the cost to retrieve and store the cord blood and the ambiguous scientific evidence as to its efficacy. Choosing to store or donate cord blood in a cord blood bank then should probably only be done after consultation with a knowledgable physician well-versed in the latest cord blood stem cell research.

About the author:
At BabyTipsPlus.com grab your free comprehensive baby shower ebook, list of Top 100 baby names, baby care articles and more http://www.babytipsplus.com/cordblood.php

Welcome to the Community!

Hi,

I would like to welcome all of you to the Cord Blood Banking Community website for the latest news and articles. This site was made to give the average internet user and researcher some quality information on this new area. The whole idea of saving a baby’s umbilical cord blood for treating diseases in the future is a new one for most of us.

Its almost straight out of science fiction to be collecting and storing blood at sub-zero temperatures for years. I think of it as being able to suspend time and “turn off” a human or cells until the time is right to make use of this precious DNA.

Cord blood banks are very mysterious to most of us. A vision of an underground lair filled with vials of human protoplasm could be nothing farther then the truth. We hope to get feedback from the banks themselves so people can see what this exciting and new industry is all about.

Thanks for making it to our site, hope you find what you need and we look forward to your comments and articles. You can signup here and post any questions or comments you may have on a new topic, or leave comments on existing articles anytime.

Thanks again, we await your blood banking knowledge!

Your friendly admin.

ps: NEW 9-12-05 Do you know of a Cord Bank that should be listed on our site? Email us the details at admin at bloodbanker.com and we’ll be sure to get it on the site as soon as we can.