WEALTH on WIRE

In a cheery home with blood-red walls in Borivli’s IC Colony, 23-year-old Ankur Nath welcomed the New Year by snacking on pizzas. Pizzas on party nights may be commonplace, but this was a special case: in the past nine years. Ankur had never eaten a single morsel through his mouth.

Some distance away to the south, Dr Hemangi Sane spent the 31st in her Dadar flat making a mental list of changes. “My shoulders are no longer droopy. I can speak clearly and for hours at a stretch. I can walk without swaying,’’ the 34-year-old listed. Until August, she spoke mostly in whispers and, while walking with assistance, could only register the designs on the floor. “Now, I can hold my neck up and watch all the beautiful colours,’’ she added.

What has brought about the subtle changes in Ankur and Hemangi is a dose of stem cell therapy at the civic-run Sion Hospital four months back. A fortnight back, the US gave the green signal for the first clinical trial of stem cell therapy for spinal cord patients, but in Mumbai the therapy has for the past two years been bringing smiles and enhancing the quality of life for seriously ill patients.

While Ankur suffers from muscular dystrophy, a disorder in which the muscles waste away, Hemangi has motor neuron disease, which is better known as the condition that crippled British scientist Stephen Hawking. Both are terminal conditions.

Stem cells are the master cells of the body, having the ability to take on the function of any organ cell. In the last five years, many centres across India have been offering stem cell therapy to patients but a complete cure is still a distant dream, admit doctors.

Sceptics abound. A senior doctor who doesn’t want to be named feels that stem cells are, at present, over-rated. “There is no known cure for progressive neurological disorders. While studies are being done across the world, none have shown any concrete results in academic sense,’’ said the doctor. Another doctor alleged that the talk of stem cell therapy only resulted in patients making a beeline for private clinics that offered the same therapy for lakhs of rupees. “Patients and their families are so desperate that they don’t really think long-term,’’ he added.

But the degree of changes in the patient’s life is there for all to see. Incidentally, two former city mayors played a role in getting both Ankur and Hemangi to the Sion Hospital’s stem cell therapy laboratory. While Dr Shubha Raul was instrumental in getting the hospital team led by neurosurgeon Dr Alok Sharma to evaluate Ankur, Vishaka Raut is Hemangi’s aunt.

“My aunt was confident that stem cells would help me, but I was sceptical, having tried out everything from ayurveda to cosmic therapy,’’ said Dr Hemangi, who was working as an internal medicine specialist in New York when the diagnosis was made.

The first patient whom Sion Hospital treated, Ravindra Ahire, who met with a bike accident in April 2007 and sustained severe spinal cord injuries, is, in fact, walking with a stick. “We have treated 76 patients with various diseases so far and most are doing much better than what they were doing before the therapy,’’ said Dr Sharma, who began the stem cell treatment after years of conducting laboratory studies.

“Muscular atrophy and motor neuron disease can bring about a complete change in the patient’s life. By offering them stem cell therapy, we have managed to brighten their lives to an extent. They are more independent than before,’’ said Dr Sandhya Kamat, dean of Sion Hospital.

In fact, Dr Sharma feels that Ankur’s recovery “after stem cell therapy is nothing short of miraculous’’. For one, Ankur was the first patient on a ventilator to be treated by the Sion team.

“While the results of stem cell therapy with spinal cord injury and multiple sclerosis patients are good, the results with motor neuron disease are not as encouraging. Yet, approximately half the patients do show a positive response. Fortunately, Dr Hemangi was one of them,’’ said Dr Sharma.