Man’s Foot Regrown With the Use of Stem Cells

By the time the doctor had taken off all of the diseased and dead flesh on Bobby Rice’s foot, there was little left besides tendons and bones. Rice said, “I couldn’t believe it. It didn’t look real. It looked like something out of a movie.” However, today, Bobby Rice’s ankle is almost completely healed. In fact, the use of stem cells worked so well that it looks as if he only scraped it. The foot has healed considerably as well.

Bobby Rice is a diabetic, so when he stepped on broken glass his foot became infected in no time at all. After having no success with a home remedy, he went to the hospital. Doctors in the emergency room found that Rice in fact had necrotizing fasciitis, or flesh-eating bacteria, and it was spreading rapidly.

Flesh Eating Bacteria on footEven though doctors used antibiotics to treat the infection, Rice’s toe had to be amputated. In addition, most of the flesh from the foot and ankle also had to be removed.

Dr. Spencer Misner, who performed the procedure said, “We did what we had to do.” He said, “We got the infection out. We saved his life, but what do you do next? We’d normally say all you can do now is cut off his leg so he can get on with his life.”

However, Dr. Misner was not willing to give up on this particular case just yet. He made a call to an Osiris Therapeutics sales representative by the name of Ed Fickey and inquired about the use of stem cells to rebuild Rice’s ankle and foot.

Stem cells have the ability to grow and differentiate into a number of other cell types. With stem cell treatments, the cells are introduced into diseased or damaged organs for repair.

According to Dr. Misner, “The problem is that Bobby is an indigent patient and didn’t have the financial resources. Ed spoke to the company, and they agreed to donate the products for free.” Osiris Therapeutics provided a couple of products known as Ovation and Grafix. According to Ed Fickey, they are constructed out of adult stem cells that come from donated placenta.

Dr. Misner said, “They hadn’t had a case of this magnitude before.” He continued, “Stem cells are starting to be used pretty extensively. They are used on burn patients to regenerate skin, but this involves muscle, bone, tendon, fat, skin, so many types of tissues.”

When he asked the company for guidelines on the use of stem cells for this specific treatment, they replied basically, “You let us know what the guidelines are because we don’t have a record of anything like this being done before.” When he did a literature search, Dr. Misner could not find where anything like this had ever been attempted. However, he did find a doctor that was quite knowledgeable on the use of stem cells, but upon seeing pictures of the patient simply replied, “Good luck.”

After the application of nine stem cell treatments, Rice’s foot is over 90% healed. The foot is expected to be regenerated completely with just three more treatments.

Comments

  1. Richard Colum says:

    That is simply amazing. The guy is so lucky he had a good doctor who really wanted to do something for him. He also new what to do to repair his condition.

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