Courtney Johns is a twenty-one-year-old mom who just gave birth to baby Albert. She could not afford banking her son’s umbilical cord blood but she did not want to throw it either. That’s why; she decided to donate it to a public cord bank, the Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix.
Baby’s Albert cord blood was the very first unit received by the MMC and Johns instantly became a member of the program.
“Usually they just get thrown away, and if I can help someone else’s baby, I want to do that,” said Johns who feels proud of giving something that doesn’t cost anything but will definitely save a life when someone gets sick.
Dr. Dean Coonrod is also happy with this new project. He assures that MMC will make one deposit to their bank each day.
The minority groups are underrepresented though. These groups are not yet informed by this new medical breakthrough. Several people in this group do not know that an umbilical cord contains stem cells that can cure malignant diseases such as cancers (Acute Leukemia, Chronic Leukemia, Hodgkin & Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and Myelodysplastic Syndrome), blood disorders, immune disorders, metabolic disorders, brain injury. cerebral palsy, type-1 diabetes and hearing loss.
The MMC looks forward to reaching out with them and make this project very successful.
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