joebee39
09-09-2009, 11:58 AM
On Saturday, august 29, I received autologous stem cell treatment for my dilated cardiomyopathy with CHF from Dr. Roberto Fernandez Vina in El Savador. Dr. Vina?s home hospital is in San Nicolas, Argentina, but he also provides treatment in El Salvador. The procedure consisted tapping into my hip bone, extracting 250 cc of marrow, separating the stem cells from the marrow and injecting the cells suspended in an iodine solution into my heart through the femoral artery. A second infusion was then made through a vein adjacent to the femoral artery. About two hours elapsed between the extraction and insertion, during which the cells were separated and packaged for insertion. Each phase of the procedure took about 30 to 40 minutes. Both phases were conducted with local anesthesia. The insertion phase also made use of a light general anesthetic which made me woozy but awake. Both processes were painful in spite of the anesthetics, but the pain was very short in duration. After spending the night in the hospital I was released the next morning to return to my very nice hotel. The total procedure went well with no complications. I?m expected to show results in two weeks to one months. Follow up exams will be conducted by my local doctors at 3 mos, and 6 mos. It?s likely that I?ll need at least one more treatment at some future date.