Jun 10, 2009 10:47 pm US/Central
Woman To Undergo Stem Cell Transplant To Treat MS
HOPKINS, Minn. (WCCO) ―
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Having three children and multiple sclerosis means life is literally a balancing act for Angela Jung.
CBS
Embryonic stem cells have been the center of a lot of controversy. What many people don't realize is we all produce stem cells.
In fact, a doctor at Northwestern University has had amazing success using a patient's own stem cells to fight multiple sclerosis. An MS patient from Hopkins hopes the procedure will give her a life free from pain, weakness and immobility.
Ayden's only four, but he knows when his mom's multiple sclerosis is acting up.
"Last time she fell in that corner and she cried, but I helped. She hit her head," he said.
"I ended up laid out, flat in the middle of the Easter party," said Ayden's mom, Angela Jung.
Having three children and multiple sclerosis means life is literally a balancing act.
"Right now I feel pretty good, but it's not always like that," she said.
A couple months ago, Jung couldn't move. Her immune system was attacking her brain stem.
"It was just excruciating pain. That was horrible, horrible, horrible," she said.
Susan Radde is Jung's mother. She also has MS but hers reacts well to medication. Her daughter's doesn't.
Desperate to help her daughter, Radde surfed the Internet for answers. That's how she found out what a doctor at Northwestern Memorial in Chicago was doing.
Dr. Richard Burt is using patients' own stem cells to fight MS.
"This therapy's designed to reset your immune system," said Burt.
"He's been doing these stem cell transplants and every single person that has been in this program has halted their disease," said Radde.
"Eighty-one percent of them are actually healing and regenerating their myelin, and that's the covering on the nerves that every MS patient wants to keep," said Jung.
Jung's been approved for a stem cell transplant at Northwestern. After two million of her stem cells have been harvested, she'll undergo chemotherapy. Then doctors will clean up the stem cells and put them back into her body.
"I'm a nurse and so I know some of this lingo, and I know enough to know that this is the only thing I've ever seen that works," said Radde.
Jung can't wait to have the transplant and to possibly be symptom-free.
"I don't like my family and my children worrying about me," she said.
Now the biggest challenge facing her family is paying for the $100,000 procedure. A spokesperson for Jung's insurance provider, Health Partners, said they won't cover the stem cell transplant because "it's still considered experimental."
One way or the other, her mother says she's going to make it happen.
"Ask a hundred people for a thousand dollars," she said. "Or ask a thousand people for a hundred dollars."
People who are interested in helping pay for the procedure can find out how to help at
Help Us Help Angela.
Paula Engelking, Producer
Contact Paula
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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