Stem Cell Therapy for Cri-du-chat Syndrome

Last Updated on: 27th July 2023, 04:11 pm

Condition

During pregnancy everything went normal, Lorena’s parents were so happy and excited for the day that they would finally meet their first child. Days went by and the big day finally came… At the time of delivery, the doctors immediately noticed that she had severe hypotonia in the trunk, neck, and legs. She was born with an open soft palate (which was totally repaired at 13 months old). Her doctors suspected that she had CRi Du Chat, performing a Genomic Array exam, and found out that she had a duplication and a deletion on chromosome 5. Due to her condition, it caused a neuro psychomotor delay, being considered a rare case.

What’s Cri-Du-Chat Syndrome?

Cri-du-chat syndrome, also known as 5p- (5p minus) syndrome, is a chromosomal condition that results when a piece of chromosome 5 is missing. Infants with this condition often have a high-pitched cry that sounds like that of a cat. The disorder is characterized by intellectual disability and delayed development, small head size (microcephaly), low birth weight, and weak muscle tone (hypotonia) in infancy. also have distinctive facial features, including widely set eyes (hypertelorism), low-set ears, a small jaw, and a rounded face. Some children with cri-du-chat syndrome are born with a heart defect. (Reference: Genetics Home Reference website)

Stem Cell Treatment

Lorena’s parents heard about Beike’s stem cell treatment while watching a Brazilian Tv show that was helping a family to raise money for their child’s treatment. So Lorena’s mom thought it could be something that they could do for her, so after researching the treatment and watching Beike’s testimonial videos, she contacted some of our previous patients to make sure everything they were saying in the video was real. They were positive that the stem cells could help their little girl so they decided to go all the way to Thailand for a chance to improve Lorena’s quality of life.

When they first arrived in Thailand Lorena’s mom shared with us that they noticed right away that they made the right choice, the treatment was very serious and complete, all the staff of the hospital gave full assistance to whatever they needed. As Lorena has a motor problem she found the physical and aquatic therapy the ones that helped the most, it was very important that their work was always together with more than one therapist during the session. They were also very impressed with the support, attention, and affection that the hospital team gave them. “The Hyperbaric chamber is innovative, in Brazil they do not use it for special children” said Lorena’s mom.

Improvements

During their second week of treatment in Thailand they already saw some light improvements on her posture, neck control and interacting more with her family and toys. Lorena came back from Thailand a lot stronger, paying more attention and the improvements were coming little by little, after six months the family felt she was a lot more attentive to everything around her and interacting more with people, moving around, more interested in games on the computer. 

“Lorena is also no longer getting as sick as constant as before. She was always very sick with many respiratory problems and needed antibiotics, she couldn’t stay more than a month without getting sick.” her mom mentioned.  

After nine months of treatment Lorena is no longer getting sick and now it has been like this for 6 months, in the last six months she grew 10 cm and gained 3 kg. And after 6 months of treatment she was able to stand for 30 seconds while being held only by the arms, after a year she was able to stay for one minute. The legs and arms are stronger, and have a lot of strength in the hands. She is interacting with everyone, smiling a lot, clapping her hands, trying to talk by making various sounds. We are thrilled to see her this way giving us a lot of hopes for more improvements.

Message from Lorena’s family

 “About the treatment, we only have to say good things and it was one of the best things we did for Lorena, we would love to come back. I would say that people have to keep in mind that it is not a miracle… Children don’t go for treatment and leave the clinic running. The great improvements that she had in Thailand has been helping with her quality of life and will help her to achieve many things in her life. We would do everything again, we would come back as many times as we could afford. 

The big improvements that made the difference in Lorena’s life were her immunity that is a lot stronger and with that all the ongoing therapies are being continued in Brazil, improving even more. Currently, she does physical therapy, aquatic therapy, speech, and occupational therapies. And every six months she does Therasuit treatment. We definitely recommend stem cell treatment.”