<http://www.mydjconn
Helping Lydia see the lightVideo Available
Child's sight improves after experimental treatment
By DONNA HICKMAN <mailto:dhickman@dailyjourn
Daily Journal Staff Writer
Mar 31, 2008 - 10:44:19 CDT
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When 6-year-old Lydia Olmsted wakes up at her grandmother'
this week, she sits up in bed and tells her, "Daylight Granny, time to get
up!" It's music to Joan Olmsted's ears.
For the first time, Lydia is seeing light like the sun bursting through the
windows at sunrise. She has Septo-Optic Dysplasia. That means her eyes don't
have enough nerve fibers for the brain to receive visual cues from the eyes.
But thanks to stem cell treatments in China in January, Lydia can see light.
It started with the lights still on the Christmas trees in the hospital
where she was treated. Lydia could see them. And what light she could see
did not hurt her eyes as it did before.
"I can see the light under the bathroom door, but I can't see colors," Lydia
explained in a visit to the Daily Journal Wednesday. "I'd like to see the
color yellow because that's my favorite."
The stem cell treatment is experimental and is not performed in the U.S.
Joan said until Lydia's mom, Juli, found out about it, she didn't know there
was anything that could help her daughter see. A little girl who was the
first to be treated 8 month ago is now seeing colors.
"We are not sure yet what the outcome will be," said Juli, interviewed by
phone. "The process will take at least a year. She is only the 7th child to
do this as part of a case study. They don't guarantee anything."
The stem cells are thought to help the body repair itself. As Juli explains
it, the optic tissue in Lydia's eyes had become atrophied from lack of use.
The stem cells will become Lydia's optic nerve cells.
The company conducting the study is Beike BioTech. Find out more about the
procedure at www.stemcellchina.
There is a lot of medical follow-up to be done and Lydia expected to need
expensive hyperbaric treatments when she returned, but those are on hold for
now. Still, funds are needed to pay the additional medical costs. Another
trip to China could be needed next year. Lydia has regular cat scans and
uses eye drops as doctors check to see if her optic nerve is developing.
The Park Hills Lions Club gave $1,000 to Lydia's Lights, the name of her
fundraising effort.
Lydia and her mother live in Columbia, but Lydia spent her spring break week
in Belgrade with her grandmother. It's where Juli grew up.
Since the story first ran in the Daily Journal on Jan. 9, the family has
been contacted by others who have loved ones with the same eye disorder.
Lydia is mystified by all the interest in her.
"One day, we were getting ready to go to Bismarck and somebody called and
they were wondering how I was doing," she recalled. Her grandmother
explained the caller was someone she knew that Lydia did not.
"But there have been other calls and e-mails from people we don't know,"
said Joan. "People are so generous and so concerned. Everywhere I go, people
say, 'Hello, how's Lydia?'"
For a month, doctors put umbilical stem cells into Lydia's body through an
intravenous injection and four injections into her spine. It cost about
$18,000. Such experimental treatments done in China have come under fire
from some medical researchers in the U.S.
They caution the results have not been proven. Juli said she knew about all
the criticism as she arranged for her daughter's treatment. She said she
tells others considering their options to carefully weigh the pros and cons.
She believes it was right for Lydia. She says she has faith in the process.
After the second treatment, Lydia began to say she saw the lights on the
Christmas tree. Juli was elated!
"Pretty quickly, I saw her pupils begin to react to light appropriately as
they are supposed to do," said Juli. "She notices more light. It used to be
she could see it only a foot away, now she can see it 6-8 feet away. She can
see a flashlight and point to it."
All the medical attention has prompted her to make up her own IV kit using a
hair clip, a plastic watch band, a couple of chenille pipe cleaners, and a
Luna bar wrapper.
"She gives us IVs often because she had so many in China," said Joan.
Lydia admits when doctors began the stem cell treatment, they told her it
wouldn't hurt. But it did. So, when her treatment was over, she went to the
doctors and nurses with her IV kit and told them it wouldn't hurt when she
used it on them.
Lydia has always loved music and connects with singers and personalities.
When she was 3 and 4, she was a fan of the group, "Alabama." At 4 or 5,
she fell in love with Toby Keith who she has always called "my boy."
By the time she turned 5, she had replaced Keith with Ryan Secrest. His is
the face she'd most like to see.
"I listen to his show on the radio and I like American Idol," she explained.
She is also a dancer and her grandmother says she never saw anyone who
could twirl as long as Lydia can.
She loves to ride horses and "go farming" with Joan and Lydia's uncle Chuck.
Lydia writes Braille and reads Braille. She describes herself as
independent, trying to open things herself and to get dressed on her own.
Juli is so proud of her daughter, calling her a "very adjusted, very
trusting, amazing little girl."
"You have to have a little bit of a dream in order to do this," Juli
explained. "We pray for full sight and function, but at the same time, we
take it step by step."
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StemCells subscribers may also be interested in these sites:
Children's Neurobiological Solutions
http://www.CNSfoundation.org/
Cord Blood Registry
http://www.CordBlood.com/at.cgi?a=150123
The CNS Healing Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CNS_Healing
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