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NEWS
Life-saving Cord Blood Bank Opens in Ma'ayanei Hayeshua
by Yated Ne'eman Staff
Bnei Brak's Ma'ayanei Hayeshua Medical Center (MYMC) has
joined with Dor Yeshorim to launch a free umbilical cord
blood bank in an effort to save more Jewish lives. Like all
the hospital's projects, this was created with the
haskomos of leading rabbonim, including HaRav Shmuel
HaLevi Wosner, HaRav Nissim Karelitz and HaRav Yitzchok
Zilberstein.
MYMC is renowned for operating according to both the highest
medical and ethical standards.
Umbilical cord blood (UCB) is blood collected from a
newborn's umbilical cord and placenta at birth, and stored in
a cord blood bank as a precaution in case the child's stem
cells are needed for fighting disease and restoring health.
The costs of the process, including storage, can reach up to
$1000 US per person, but MYMC is making this available at no
charge to babies born at the hospital.
With 7,000 births a year, and the number steadily rising
because of a recently expanded maternity ward, MYMC is an
ideal location to create this public service center that will
benefit Jews in Israel and around the world. As well as
providing a potentially life saving resource for the child,
the blood bank will also enable doctors to identify potential
donors for other people needing life-saving medical
procedures. The MYMC program will enable participants to
choose to donate to the public bank, or to preserve the UCB
at the hospital's bank for future use within their personal
family.
"The common practice has been to discard the umbilical cord
and placenta," explained Dr. Yoram Liwer, CEO of Ma'ayanei
Hayeshua Medical Center. "But research has demonstrated that
this blood offers a tremendous source of stem cells, which
can be used to treat as many as 45 diseases and disorders
today, and even more in the future."
Stem cells are vital to the medical process because they can
indefinitely manufacture blood cells for continuous
replenishment. Although bone marrow transplants have been the
primary avenue for transferring stem cells, cord blood is
easier to extract without risk to the donor and easier to
match for a wider range of potential recipients, with a
smaller risk of rejection. Stem cells can help treat
leukemia, auto-immune diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis and
Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Tay Sachs, as well as a range of
other illnesses, and medical experts believe that with
additional research, stem cells will also be used to help in
the treatment for Alzheimer's, Diabetes, heart disease, liver
disease, Muscular Dystrophy, Parkinson's Disease, Spinal Cord
Injury, and strokes.
For further information about this story or Ma'ayanei
Hayeshua Medical Center, please contact C. Weiss at
chevy@globalvisionsisrael.com or 0508-772-449.
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