Can child’s umbilical-cord blood be used to treat his own cerebral palsy?

DALLAS HEXTELL looked like any other healthy toddler when he appeared on the “Today” show on March 11 — walking, clapping, laughing, waving to his mom.

But just nine months earlier, cerebral palsy had kept Dallas, now 2, from crawling, sitting up or reaching other milestones of child development.

Dallas’ parents attribute his remarkable improvement to an experimental treatment using an infusion of his own umbilical-cord blood, saved at the wish of his parents in a private bank at his birth.

But cerebral palsy and stem cell experts warn that no one knows yet just how well the treatment has worked or whether it will work for others with his condition.

April 29th, 2008