THE FIRST child from the Republic to receive revolutionary stem-cell treatment for a rare disorder affecting the optic nerve will travel to China next week for the procedure.
Eight-month old Gretta Kieran Cullen, from Termonfeckin, Co Louth, will fly with her parents to Beijing on Tuesday to receive a course of eight stem-cell injections.
The child was diagnosed with a rare condition, septo-optic dysplasia (SOD), three days after she was born in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda last August.
The condition can cause blindness, hormone deficiencies and low muscle tone.
It is hoped the innovative treatment will help the child’s vision, which has been adversely affected by a condition secondary to the primary diagnosis, optic nerve hypoplasia – which results in underdevelopment of the optic nerves.
Chinese stem-cell storage and processing company Beike Biotechnology will provide the stem cells which will be administered to Gretta in a specialist medical facility at Qingdao, 550km southeast of Beijing.
The stem cells will be administered through an intravenous connected to the baby’s spine, or directly into the brain via a lumbar injection, according to her mother, Maria Kieran (27).
“We will only be in the hospital for two days, so the procedure itself will be quick. The most important thing is determining how beneficial it will be for her and because she is so young.
“We will be relying on medical reports indicating brain activity, so an MRI scan when she comes back will tell us a lot about how successful it is,” she said.
Ms Kieran and her partner, Tommy Cullen, launched a fundraising effort to cover the cost of the €60,000 operation in January. To date, they have raised €55,000 and plan to cover the remaining cost through ongoing fundraising efforts.
“We just cannot believe that people have been so generous in the middle of a recession,” she said. “The response has been incredible.”
The SOD diagnosis means that Gretta’s development could be delayed and her parents are hopeful the stem-cell injections will boost her overall development, in addition to aiding her sight, although she will never have 20/20 vision.
“It would make her little life so much easier if this operation could help her define objects, but there is an uncertainty around how much good it will do. It could to a lot of good, or it could do a little – we just won’t know until after the treatment,” Ms Kieran said.
Beike has completed 24 successful stem-cell operations and counted among those successes is Dakota Clarke from Belfast, also born with SOD. The three-year-old underwent the revolutionary stem-cell treatment last year and is able to see for the first time in her life as a result.
“We have met and discussed it with Dakota’s parents and it offers great hope to us how well she is doing. Our main concern was that there would be no side effects and there aren’t. The worst she will experience is headaches following the injections,” Ms Kieran said.