Stem Cells

So, I'm curious to hear what you all know about this method—whether you're for or against using it for treatment...☕

So, apparently nobody has a clue 🙄 hey there, my fellow progressives ☕

Is this about preserving stem cells for things like leukemia treatments or similar procedures?
I know it's pretty common globally, but here in America, God knows where we stand with it...

Chris Morgan67 said:Is this about storing stem cells—say, for treating leukemia or things like that?
I know it's pretty widespread globally, but honestly, I don't think we have much going on with it here in America...

If you collect them from, say, umbilical cord blood from your own child, you can store them just in case they're needed later. But you can also get them from adults, or more commonly from embryos... and they're used for all sorts of conditions, not just leukemia. I'm mostly wondering if people here in the States actually have any experience with it, and what the general public opinion is...😕 ☕

I'm not exactly an expert on this, but from everything I've read and heard, it looks like a solid +5
I honestly don't get why our doctors wouldn't have gone out of their way to harvest and preserve stem cells for that woman caught in the blast
Our medical community just doesn't seem to be on the same page as the rest of the world🙄

ruggedfalcon2 said:If you harvest them from a cord blood unit, for example, they can be stored just in case they're needed later. But you can also get them from adults or, more commonly, from embryos... they're used for a whole range of conditions, not just leukemia. I'm curious if people have much experience with this here in the States and what the general consensus is... 😕 ☕

Well, most Americans wouldn't accept it. Unfortunately, our laws don't allow for it either, so stem cells can only be sourced abroad.

Personally, I think it's a brilliant concept...👍

Drew Kim3 said:I don't get why our doctors didn't just harvest and preserve the stem cells from that woman involved in the blast...
They won't—our medical establishment would rather go against the rest of the world than cooperate. 🙄

I actually hadn't heard about that case before 👎 ☕

Chris Morgan67 said:Man, listen to how most Americans are pushing back against this. Unfortunately, our laws don't allow it either, so you can only get those birth certificates from abroad.

Personally, I think it's a great move.👍

Look, plenty of "Americans" might resist... but they'll have to adapt if they don't want to be left behind by the rest of the modern world. I'm actually a huge supporter of regulated GM, nanotechnology, biotech, and all that stuff.👍 ☕

Yeah, she actually went abroad—I think it was to Austria—to give birth, and they harvested her stem cells from the umbilical cord there. They're keeping them safe in a facility over there now.

I’d love to hear just one good reason why those doctors wouldn't do it here!

Out there—like in Austria or Germany—it’s not actually doctors doing this, it's private companies. They have to have some kind of contract with both the mother and the hospital so they can show up on short notice, grab the stem cells from the umbilical cord, and get them straight into liquid nitrogen. Obviously, the whole thing costs money, and storing the cells later isn't cheap either. Plus, you can't just do this at any random hospital.

Doctors, regardless of whether they're here in the States or abroad, will collect those cells if the mom gives the okay, usually for research or stem cell studies, but not for private storage. Which makes sense, I guess, for the reasons I mentioned. Maybe we'll eventually see more companies popping up here offering cord blood storage services too.

I don't know the specifics of that one case someone brought up, but honestly, if I were the OB on duty, I wouldn't want some random crew hanging around my delivery room either. Since we don't really have clear legal regulations for this yet, how am I supposed to know—or even trust—that these people actually have the permits, the training, or the skill to pull this off? If something goes sideways, like an infection, who takes the fall? It's the doctor on call, every time.
And yeah, it might not even be the most considerate thing toward the other moms in the room, especially in places where you can't easily isolate patients. At the end of the day, the crew coming in to do this isn't even part of the medical team.

Drew Kim3 said:well, I think I have a pretty solid reason why those doctors wouldn't touch this with a ten-foot pole!

Look, it’s not some conspiracy where doctors are just being jerks—the reality is there simply isn't any facility in this entire country set up to actually store umbilical stem cells.

Private companies overseas handle all of this, and man, they charge a freaking fortune to do it...

It’s always so much easier to just point fingers and claim the doctors are out to get the patients, isn't it? 🙄

I didn't realize, you don't need to roll your eyes at me
The lady in question has been pretty aggressive toward doctors and badmouthing them in the press. But since the media loves nothing more than sensationalizing stories and painting physicians as the villains on TV, they'll likely do the exact same thing with this case.

Drew Kim3 said:Look, I didn't realize you were gonna roll your eyes at me like that
The lady in question has been going absolutely scorched-earth on doctors in the media—but hey, that's just how news outlets work, right? They love nothing more than blowing stuff out of proportion and making doctors look like the bad guys on every major network... so this case is probably following that same script.

The eye-rolling isn't coming from me, it's coming from the media and that woman herself...

They just whip up some little segment without actually having all the facts. Or maybe they have them, but they don't have a clue what they're looking at.

Anyway, I'm no doctor. 🙂

I honestly thought they probably just lacked the right equipment to pull it off here, and then the media twists the whole thing so you're left thinking doctors are incompetent... it’s nothing but a total distortion of the truth.

rustymoose54 said:it’s always easiest to just blame doctors for being against their patients🙄

True—and in most cases, it's actually the right call☕

I know the lady involved personally, and honestly, she hasn't said a single negative thing about the doctors. If anything, they were completely on her side. Every news report featured Prof. Labar right there by her side. You also saw Prof. Ivanišević from the Mayo Clinic and another young doctor from the clinic appearing in the media alongside her. In fact, the doctors even covered the costs for her to give birth abroad. They’ve all been pointing out that the real issue lies with our legal framework. And just to clear things up, there wasn't some random crew swooping in to take umbilical cord stem cells. The midwife handled the entire procedure herself, and afterwards, that blood was handed over to a courier who drove it straight to Denver at room temperature. They have a 48-hour window from the time of birth to process and freeze them.
So, in this specific situation, nobody has uttered a word against the medical staff.

John Richardson4 said:So basically, nobody even breathed a word against the doctor in this scenario...

alright, alright, my bad—I was definitely talking about stuff I heard through the grapevine rather than seeing it myself🙂

but look, the bottom line is there isn't some big-shot American biotech firm specializing in cell storage around here, and let's be real—that’s not exactly a problem doctors are supposed to be fixing anyway...

rustymoose54 said:The reality is, there isn't a single company in America specializing in cell storage—and frankly, this isn't an issue doctors should be expected to tackle themselves.

Here’s the actual issue: doctors are usually the ones lacking the specific expertise for this. It would be much easier to establish legal regulations if the medical community actually showed some interest...☕

In America, we don't have a dedicated blood bank because, for some inexplicable reason, the Department of Health just doesn't want one to exist. There’s actually a small group of people—actual medical doctors, not just some random entrepreneurs looking for a payday—trying to get a facility up and running. But the current legislation effectively bans private practice for this kind of thing. Professor Labar mentioned that over in Denver, they’ve managed to make it work; they have all the necessary equipment, though they could probably use some updated refrigeration units, which they'd likely fund through donations from the donors themselves. What we're missing is clear legislation and a bit of actual willpower from the bureaucrats at the federal level. Every single doctor that woman reached out to was fully on board and ready to go, which really highlights how incompetent the ministry is being right now.
It goes to show that the doctors around here really do know what they're doing.