Jeannine
09-05-2009, 05:52 PM
Paralyzed teen racer traveling to Portugal for stem cell therapy
VIENNA TWP., Michigan -- Racing at speeds upwards of 120 mph, nothing holds Michael Johnson back.
Paralyzed from the waist down in a 2005 motorcycle crash, the Vienna Township teen, 16, uses his hands to propel himself around the track in his specially equipped go-kart -- winning one state and one national title in races as far away as Quebec and Florida.
This week, the Frankenmuth High School junior is racing toward another goal: He's flying to Portugal to undergo an experimental stem cell transplant he hopes will repair his spinal cord and enable him to walk again for the first time since he was 12 years old.
That's a victory worth any cost, said his parents, Tim and Kathi Johnson, who are paying $50,000 out of pocket for the surgery in addition to travel costs and intensive postoperative rehabilitation therapy for at least a year.
"It's an absolutely huge deal for us. Just about all the people we've talked to have gotten at least some feeling back in the lower part of their body or regained bowel and bladder control," said his dad, Tim Johnson, 50. "He's told us if he can just get that back, he won't care if he can't walk again. He's still racing and doing the things he really loves. But that one thing would make it so much easier to live his life."
The Portuguese medical team, headed by Dr. Carlos Lima, a neuropathologist, will harvest stem cells from Michael's nose and transplant them at the spinal cord break, in hopes they will regrow the lost neural connections.
Continues...
http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2009/09/paralyzed_teen_race_traveling.html
VIENNA TWP., Michigan -- Racing at speeds upwards of 120 mph, nothing holds Michael Johnson back.
Paralyzed from the waist down in a 2005 motorcycle crash, the Vienna Township teen, 16, uses his hands to propel himself around the track in his specially equipped go-kart -- winning one state and one national title in races as far away as Quebec and Florida.
This week, the Frankenmuth High School junior is racing toward another goal: He's flying to Portugal to undergo an experimental stem cell transplant he hopes will repair his spinal cord and enable him to walk again for the first time since he was 12 years old.
That's a victory worth any cost, said his parents, Tim and Kathi Johnson, who are paying $50,000 out of pocket for the surgery in addition to travel costs and intensive postoperative rehabilitation therapy for at least a year.
"It's an absolutely huge deal for us. Just about all the people we've talked to have gotten at least some feeling back in the lower part of their body or regained bowel and bladder control," said his dad, Tim Johnson, 50. "He's told us if he can just get that back, he won't care if he can't walk again. He's still racing and doing the things he really loves. But that one thing would make it so much easier to live his life."
The Portuguese medical team, headed by Dr. Carlos Lima, a neuropathologist, will harvest stem cells from Michael's nose and transplant them at the spinal cord break, in hopes they will regrow the lost neural connections.
Continues...
http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2009/09/paralyzed_teen_race_traveling.html