Gabriel and Alex’s Journeys: How Their Own Cord Blood Became a Key to Autism Therapy
This story highlights a series of interviews with the parents of two boys who underwent therapy for autism using their own cord blood. Gabriel and Alex took part in a clinical trial led by Dr Felician Stăncioiu in Bucharest, Romania. The trial is available to autistic children worldwide, provided they have their cord blood preserved in a family bank. While Gabriel and Alex are from Romania, their cord blood was stored internationally and shipped to the hospital for the study. As part of the treatment, the children received both nutritional supplements and a single intravenous infusion of their stem cells.
Gabriel, one of the trial participants, was characterised by extreme social and behavioural problems before the therapy. As was the case with his father, Gabriel was an autistic boy who was always in his own world and did not pay attention to the world around him, including the dangers. He had poor social skills and was often aggressive with his younger siblings. Nevertheless, Gabriel was always gifted with numbers and mathematics even with all these difficulties.
Following the cord blood therapy, Gabriel’s father noted some changes that he believes are positive. Gabriel is now less aggressive and more verbal. His relationships with his siblings have changed for the better and he now seems to have a better empathetic understanding of them. This change has given hope and some relief to Gabriel’s family, proving that cord blood therapy can help to lessen some of the worst symptoms of autism.
Alex’s mother also has her own story of her son. Before undergoing cord blood therapy, Alex had echolalia, which means he was repeating phrases without being able to start a conversation. His family had explored various therapies, including applied behaviour analysis (ABA), when they learned about the option of using stored cord blood through media presentations. Although Alex’s mother knows that this treatment is not a magic cure, she knows how much it changes things. Alex started speaking without any assistance only two days after the infusion; this was a major shift in his development.
The stories of Gabriel and Alex are examples of the potential that stem cell therapy can open in the sphere of autism treatment. These cases call for further research on new therapies and the combination of new treatments with existing ones to help children with autism.