Thanks to modern medicine, patients who suffered from stroke may soon regain their mobility.
Using donated adult stem cells, researchers from the Stanford University's School of Medicine were able to successfully treat patients whose legs and arms were earlier rendered immobile after suffering from stroke.
In an article published on LifeSiteNews, lead researcher Gary Steinberg showed how they conducted an experiment on 18 stroke patients who "had a hard time moving their arm or leg, or walking."
The selected test cases all suffered from stroke for six months or more—the period when patients are already considered untreatable. This was required to make sure that whatever improvements to their health will be attributed to the stem cell treatment that they underwent.
The researchers were surprised to see how all patients slowly recovered from their seemingly hopeless condition in a short span of time.
"After the injections we saw improvement in all 18 patients as a group, within a month," Steinberg reported.
"Within days some were lifting their arms over their head. Lifting their legs off their bed. Walking, when they hadn't in months or years. The results were very exciting," he added.
Thirty-six-year-old Sonia Coontz of Long Beach California was one of the 18 test cases who experienced this "miracle treatment" first hand.
Coontz was supposed to get married, but had to postpone after she suffered from stroke in 2011, making her unable to walk down the aisle.
"My right arm wasn't working at all," she said, according to a Stanford University press release. "It felt like it was almost dead. My right leg worked, but not well. I used a wheelchair a lot...After my surgery, they woke up."
The treatment particularly used bone marrow, scientifically known as mesenchymal stem cells, from donors to make the patients move their limbs again. These stem cells have already been earlier used as a safe treatment for leukaemia and other cancers.
Aside from finding a long-term cure for stroke patients, Dr. Ray Bohlin, who holds a Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology and is head of Probe Ministries in Texas, explained that the Stanford study also presents a compelling case for harvesting stem cells from adults instead of embryos.
"They have the ability when you introduce them into someone's system to seek out the damaged tissue and repair it," Bohlin also told LifeSiteNews, referring to the benefits of using adult stem cells.
He also emphasised that this study proved how scientists no longer have to kill embryos just to advance their medical research.
