MASON CITY, Iowa – For some being able to walk can be taken for granted. One local woman is taking it step by step.
Shirley Smith has a contagious smile and a determination to overcome any obstacle.
“I had been very active my whole life. I never sat around, I was always busy. Sitting in the wheelchair was awful,” Smith said.
Three years ago, after a shoulder injury, Shirley was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. She’s was later wheelchair bound.
“It scared me because I want, I was very active, working two jobs then I end up like this,” Smith said.
Shirely wasn’t giving up. “I couldn’t find anyone else to help me and I was in pain. I just needed to do something to try to help myself so I heard about stem cell and thought, well I will give it a try,” Smith said.
That’s when she met Dr. Crispino Santos, owner of Regenerative Cell Institute.
“The first time I saw her she was asking for treatment for Parkinson’s disease and at first to be honest she was our first case of Parkinson’s disease,” Dr. Santos said.
Dr. Santos was happy to help. In January he harvested stem cells from her abdomen fat. He then did an inter-spinal injection with the cells, but not much change was seen. Round two happened last month with a similar procedure, this time using umbilical cord stem cells. That’s when Shirley’s life began to turn around.
“Almost got a stroke here, heart attack, when we saw her walking,” Dr. Santos said with a smile.
She began to walk again and started to feel more like her old self.
“It’s like I woke up one morning and I thought man I can go and get things out of the refrigerator and not fall backwards. I can button my shirt and I can stand up by the closet and look to see what I want to wear,” Smith said.
Her grandkids are what keep pushing her forward and her love to paint, which came to a halt because of the disease.
Now she’s back at it, slowly but Shirley.
Another procedure has been scheduled to keep the improvements coming.
Video:http://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-08-fund-human-animal-embryos.html
http://kimt.com/2016/08/04/from-wheelchair-to-walking/
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