29 years ago, a young 5-year-old boy named Matt Farrow was battling for his life. Matt suffered from a rare genetic disorder call Fanconi Anaemia. This condition causes a person’s body to produce mutated blood cells and greatly increases the risk of cancer.
Fortunately for Matt, he was set to receive a stem cell transplant. He was flown to France, where doctors would give him a transfusion of cord blood stem cells. The stem cells would restore his body’s ability to produce healthy blood cells. Matt’s younger sister was the source of the cells, which were obtained from her discarded umbilical cord.
The doctors were hopeful that the procedure would work, but they knew the odds were stacked against Matt. He only had a 5% chance of the treatment being a success. It was still worth attempting because most people with Fanconi Anaemia have their lives dramatically shortened by complications relating to the disorder.
Remarkably, the transfusion was effective and Matt was cured of Fanconi Anaemia. He became the first person in the world to successfully be cured of Fanconi Anaemia through a stem cell transplant. Matt is still doing well today and now works for the Cord:Use Cord Blood Bank in Orlando.
In the years since Matt was successfully treated, thousands of other people have received transfusions of cord blood stem cells. Cord blood stem cells are now used to treat more than 80 different illnesses, including many forms of cancer. To date, there have been over 40,000 transplants — and there are many more to come.
One of those people was 2-year-old Grant Gibbens, diagnosed with leukemia and needed a bone marrow transplant. Cord blood from his newborn brother was used to treat his cancer and now in full he is in remission according to his family.
Matt realized that he was the one who delivered the cord blood used to treat Grant.
“That’s really special,” he said. “It’s really awesome that I hear that cord blood has been able to save another life.”
Source: Cord blood that saved 2-year-old boy hand-delivered by first-ever cord blood recipient
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