Dr. Weiss,

I wanted to give you a 2-month, post-stem cell update on our little guy’s progress. But first, I wanted to give a little background on where he was prior to stem cells. Our son will be turning 6 in August and by most standards would be considered non-verbal. He has been in full time ABA therapy (40 hours a week) since June 2017, and has been receiving in-home speech therapy several hours a week for the past 8 months. During the past 2 years of ABA therapy we have not seen the progress we were hoping for. It seemed like every month during our parent conference, we heard the same thing about good days and bad days but never saw a constant growth or real progression. After extensive research we decided to try stem cell therapy. We were extremely nervous about exploring this option but after our consultation with you, our fears were put to rest.

One of our concerns was how we were going to calm our son down enough to administer the stem cells. Although he fought the process the majority of the time, I have to say you and Deanna were so patient with him and made the process go as smooth as possible. We truly felt you had his best interest in mind the entire time.

Our son received 30 million stem cells on April 11, 2019. We chose to not tell his ABA center, but did inform his Speech Therapist. This was mainly done in an effort to get a real evaluation from his full-time Therapist as to his progress. Almost immediately after he received stem cells his Therapist gave positive daily reports as to how well he did during his sessions. About a week after stem cells his Therapist was extremely excited when we picked him up. She said he put an 11-piece puzzle together unassisted for the first time. Prior to stem cells he required assistance with puzzles. When we had our May parent meeting with the Director, she constantly raved about all the progress they are seeing with him. His center keeps daily progress charts on his activity and for the first time in 2 years we saw a consistent growth. I noticed on each chart his progress stayed consistent starting on April 23, 2019. When we discussed the date, the Director asked if we had done anything different at home to explain all the positive gains they are seeing. We kept our little secret and smiled inside.

In addition to the gains his ABA center is seeing, his Speech Therapist said she is completely sold on stem cells as she has not seen this much progress in such a short period of time. At home, we have seen his peer interaction with his 9-year-old brother grow by leaps and bounds. Prior to stem cells our son would usually play by himself while other activities were going on in the house. He now constantly engages with his brother and plays appropriately with toys and other activities. He will now play catch, bounce balls, shoot a basketball into a kids hoop and plays with his trucks. Our son used to just throw toys against the wall and run away. We have been able to go to restaurants without feeling like we were never going to go out to eat again and even walk around a mall without him running off.

Our son still has a long way to go with his speech, but the gains we have seen in only 2 months are extremely promising. This is hopefully the prayer we have been asking for. We are planning another round of stem cells in the near future and can’t wait to see what is in store for our little guy.

I almost forgot to mention, we have had numerous friends and family who had not seen our son since his stem cells say that he seems like a completely different kid.

Thanks

J.B.