Stem cell treatment allows paralyzed Brazilian to walk and talk again

0 Comments | AFP, November, 2004

RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) — A Brazilian woman who suffered a brain hemorrhage that left her paralyzed on one side and unable to speak has regained her ability to walk and talk after undergoing a stem cell transplant, hospital officials said.

Doctors injected the stem cells into the brain of Maria da Graca Pomeceno, 54, five days after a brain hemorrhage left her a hemiplegic.

The new therapy, being tested for the first time in Brazil, appears to show that stem cells could help patients recover from vascular problems, said Hans Fernando Dohmann, director of Rio's Pro-Cardiaco Hospital, where the experimental treatment was carried out.

Dohmann warned that a trial involving just one person does not automatically mean that the treatment will work for other patients,...