Benjamin and Elizabeth are 3rd year Med students taking a year off. Liz got back from a trip to India a few months ago where she accompanied Amanda, a parapelegic woman who is undergoing a stem cell injection therapy there from Dr. Geeta Schroff. Amanda lost all feeling and movement below the waist in a skiing accident in her 20's. We had dinner with Amanda (and had a bottle of Hoffstader Pinot Nero from Alto Adige that was delicious) and heard about the successes of her treatments. After this therapy, she's regained bladder and bowel control, as well as some feeling and movement in her quadracepts and hamstrings. This is an absolutely staggering advance in a field where it has been believed that there is no cure, and evidence that there are many ways for us to reverse an otherwise irreversable condition.
The unbelieveably superstitious and backwards fundamentalist stance on stem cells of the current administration is an affront to not just science, but all humanity. (emphasis mine)
Her amazing story can be checked out on her blog www.amandaboxtel.wordpress.com
Amanda, by the way, is the fetching blonde in the middle of the picture. Oh, and oh yeah, Robert, Liz's friend on the right, he couldn't find the condo and hopped a bus and came to the restaurant in his bootliners, so we ridiculed him after dinner.
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