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Thalassaemia Treated Successfully Using Stem Cells

Haematologist Revathy Raj and the team from Apollo Gleneagles hospital in Chennai have given a new lease of life to eight-year-old Thamirabharani

Haematologist Revathy Raj and the team from Apollo Gleneagles hospital in Chennai have given a new lease of life to eight-year-old Thamirabharani, who suffers from thalassemia.

The kid has been having blood transfusions since the age of 18 months, but now stem cell transplantation has stopped the need to have these as well. Doctors say she is completely alright since March this year.

“The first step was to destroy all the existing bone marrow cells using chemotherapy. Next came transplanting stem cells from the donor,” said Raj.

Thamirabharani was two years old when her mother conceived again, but they found that the fetus also had the disease. The pregnancy was terminated and the couple tried again and found that this fetus was only a carrier of the disease.

They collected cord blood when the baby was born and asked Life Cell to preserve it for one year after which Thamirabharani had her life-saving transplantation.


Source-Medindia
RAS


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