| BANGKOK, Thailand 9 January, 2007 - Peter Irwin | | | | stem cells, injected by catheter into my damaged |
| from Surfers Paradise in Australia looks the | | | | and struggling heart. This simple and safe |
| picture of health. He and his Thai partner are in | | | | procedure took place at the Bangkok Heart |
| Bangkok for a check-up and a holiday a time to | | | | Hospital. |
| relax and for his pregnant partner to visit family. | | | | I was very impressed with the hospital staff and |
| He sounds both positive and optimistic as he | | | | facilities and the very high level of professionalism |
| recounts his dramatic story. | | | | they all displayed. For three months nothing much |
| After a twenty year history of admissions to ICU | | | | seemed to be happening, but an MRI at four |
| wards I was finally advised that at 55 years of | | | | months showed my Ejection Fraction (a measure |
| age I had Dilated Cardiomyopathy with some | | | | of the hearts pumping efficiency) had risen 50 |
| Ischaemic Heart Disease. I was given a fifty to | | | | percent. By six months I was feeling much better |
| sixty percent chance of lasting ten years, he | | | | and I have continued to improve. My whole life |
| recounts. Then my condition became far worse. | | | | has changed and despite having to cope with |
| Two years ago, after an Angiogram that had to | | | | many personal problems my attitude and outlook |
| be stopped due to severe chest pain, I was told | | | | are very positive. I now have a purpose for living |
| there was nothing more that could be done for | | | | which I had lost due to my health problems, so I |
| me. The odds lowered to a fifty percent chance | | | | am very thankful, he said. |
| of living two years. The cardiologist, almost as an | | | | Not content with simply having stem cell therapy |
| aside, mentioned that my only hope lay in stem | | | | Peter also made changes to his diet, lifestyle and |
| cell therapy but he knew little about it. I contacted | | | | attitude to gain the maximum benefits from his |
| St Vincents Hospital in Sydney who were doing a | | | | medical treatment. He's now a vegetarian, 20kg |
| clinical experimental group, but I fell outside their | | | | lighter and looking forward to becoming a parent |
| entry criteria as they were only treating arterial | | | | again. He believes that all these factors, combining |
| diseases. | | | | with his VesCell stem cell therapy's work in |
| Rather than accept his future Peter took action | | | | repairing his heart, have given him a new lease on |
| and did an Internet search for any help he could | | | | life. |
| find. He discovered a Thai -Israeli company called | | | | I'm deeply in love and have been given a second |
| Theravitae who were treating end-stage cardiac | | | | chance at life. Who could ask for more? he said. |
| patients in Bangkok with startling levels of success | | | | I've just had a complete medical check-up and all |
| and contacted them. I emailed and also spoke | | | | my vital statistics have improved markedly. But |
| with their staff, who were endlessly patient of | | | | for me the greatest improvement has been that |
| my many questions. I also spoke with several | | | | I can enjoy a far better quality of life and I have |
| local Australian cardiologists who were mainly | | | | high expectations of a very positive future, he |
| negative but who knew little about stem cell | | | | added. If you are beyond hope of treatment |
| therapy for the failing heart, but what did I have | | | | because of heart disease all is not lost. Almost |
| to lose? So I went ahead and on October 4, 2005 | | | | every day research is being published that shows |
| I had some 250cc of my blood withdrawn which | | | | just how many seriously ill heart patients can be |
| was flown to the laboratory. Five days later I had | | | | returned to a life they thought they had lost. |
| the blood, now mightily enriched with millions more | | | | |