60 Minutes Australia: HSCT for MS is "news that will rock our medical establishment"

[ActiveMSers]

Kristy Cruise of Queensland, Australia, underwent a stem cell transplant for her aggressive MS in Russia and 60 Minutes Australia followed her there for the story. They also followed up afterward to check in on her progress (spoiler: she's doing fantastic). Below is the preview, and the story is already making waves.

Yes, the treatment is the same as the one I received. But I'm just one of many examples. It's the same that more than a thousand of MSers around the world have received. There's nothing more effective for aggressive MS.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kzcws_DQDIs

[ActiveMSers]

It's hitting the newspapers Down Under as well.

http://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/...-1226848533973

[ActiveMSers]

Her blog (lots of detail):

http://www.movingmountains2013.com/

[ActiveMSers]

60 Minutes Part 1: http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/8...ical-treatment

Part 2: http://ninem.sn/EI92bPd

[ActiveMSers]

After having a chance to watch the program, I've got a few thoughts.

1) Pretty accurate. Doesn't call the treatment a "cure" or anything crazy, and gets the facts mostly right.

2) The actual infusion of stem cells is pretty anticlimactic actually. The room smells like corn and you don't feel any different. A newbie nurse put in my stem cells, her first time ever. (Another nurse watched over her.)

3) The side story about the patient who started treatment and then was told she couldn't get transplanted requires more explanation. What likely happened is that chemo was given to trigger the release of stem cells into the blood stream. Those stem cells were then harvested and frozen. Then, before the actual treatment, the patient was refused. There is NO way a hospital would give massive doses of chemo and then not give back the stem cells--it would kill the patient. And moving a patient at that critical time would be unethical. So while what happened was wrong, it did not put the life of the patient at risk.