Chloe gets stem cells and doesn't need HAs anymore!

Origional source

Read her stem cell story here! This is concentrate proof! That news has been posted on many other blogs and forums! Stem cells to improve hearing is a reality now! The anecedotes I posted before were true after all! I am so happy for her that she got such a wonderful result!

The price quoted is $5000 minimum which isn't bad at all. Me and my parents are betting the total will be anywhere from $15,000 to $30,000 when all is said and done. This is still way cheaper than CI! Even if insurance pays for CI, I can't afford $50,000 for a 2nd CI. Im not interested in CI anyway as im getting stem cells. I posted about the advantages of stem cells vs. CI earlier. One of my unilateral(one ear) late deafened friend says we could get our chance to fly overseas as soon as summer of 2010 to get stem cells! It's likley enough pioneers(50-100) will have gone ahead by then and we can see their results and know what to expect. I will post more with any further news I get.

link to my friend's blog with youtube video

I showed the youtube video to my dad(the video above now has CC)
My dad after reading this blog and the news says if my hearing improves to what I showed in the audiogram below, that would be "beautiful" to hear at 0db! He saw the CI at 30db across and is excited for me to get stem cells. We discussed if stem cells don't work, I keep my residual hearing but if CI doesn't work(or even if it does), pfffffff your residual hearing is gone! You won't be able to go back to HAs nor get stem cells. Dad agrees that CI is truly a last resort. CI does not interest me, if it interests you that's your choice.

If stem cells didn't work for me, ill keep wearing HAs while awaiting a gene cure or some other procedure that is likley to improve or even restore my hearing. Good chance stem cells will work, the question is how much improvement I can hope to achieve. I think a 20db improvement is realistic at minimum but I may achieve 30, 40 or even more! I have realistic expectations in how much I can hope to improve.

Chloe, a student in California lost her hearing 3 years ago due to a cold. She got another cold and lost more hearing in the other ear. Her hearing loss became progressive. Her parents are doctors. They both work in a hospital and none of the doctors could restore her hearing initally. They believed the hearing loss is autoimmune related. She was fitted with the best HAs bilaterally(both ears) to amplify her residual hearing. Later on(3 years after she lost her hearing), the doctors discussed stem cells with Chloe's parents. It was assured that using her own stem cells was 100% safe even though it was experimental. She was a success case and no longer wears HAs. One ear is at 50% of normal and the other ear is at 90% of normal. Music sounds great, especially in her better ear. She is so happy to be able to hear again!

My comments: I can't find anything about converting % HL to db HL. I did find that the cutoff for normal hearing is 25db HL. So it's likley her good ear is hearing at 25-35db PTA and her bad ear is probably at 50-60db HL or a moderate HL. She could benefit from a HA in the bad ear, but chooses not to wear HAs. Her good ear is good enough that she hears plenty without needing HA. Someone will need to email that clinic or her parents and find out her before and after audiogram or at least what db was her loss before and after? Regardless, such a drastic improvement that hearing is functional without HAs gets me and my dad very excited! I look forward to the day of hearing better. I have realistic expectations as ive mentioned many times.

Her case serves as evidence that stem cells has the ability to regenerate hair cells NOW and give near normal unaided hearing! Not everyone will achieve an improvement as drastic as she and improvement may not be the same for both ears. It's possible if she got a 2nd round of stem cells, she could achieve additional improvements in her worse ear. Ive been reading stem cell studies on animals and while none get down to 0db perfect hearing, the improvements are huge and on the order of 30, 40, 50db! The animal studies show that the more residual hearing that is saved, the better your hearing will be. Those with plenty of residual hearing are getting down to near normal hearing which is on the order of 20-35db loss compared to their hearing before it was destroyed with sounds or ototoxins. I could get down to near normal hearing at 250Hz and below and in the mid and high frequencies, my hearing could be anywhere from 50db HL to 100db HL because I have virtually no residual hearing at 1000Hz and above. I plan to use transposition if I don't have enough high frequency hearing.

My chances of being able to get stem cells in the very near future are high. I am just waiting for more pioneers to have gone ahead and report their results. I want an idea of how much improvement to expect and also stem cell technology is moving fast, it surely will be better tomorrow than it's today. The evidence of stem cell's success is rapidly growing and I look forward to seeing more results by the other pioneers who are going ahead. I may decide to go ahead sometime in 2012, but could be much sooner depending how many pioneers are going to be getting stem cells in 2010(next year) and how great their results are.

My family and friends(all hearing) fully support stem cells for me and if they lost their hearing, they would get stem cells themselves asap to give at least some of the hearing back that they lost. Right now, most culturally Deaf are against stem cells. Itll take time for them to accept stem cells just like it did for CI. Many of the Deaf who were against CI are no longer against CI or they are even pro CI. Some of them have gotten CI themselves.

It's true that it's unusual for a prelingually deaf to be interested in stem cells. But then, most prelingually deaf are involved in deaf culture, relay on sign language, don't consider sound/speech to be important and are proud to be Deaf. They don't need/want a fix, not even CI. I respect their choice and they should respect our choice.

Stem cells will be very popular for deaf babies born to hearing parents, late deafened postlinguals and prelingual deaf who have never been involved in deaf culture, don't know any ASL and are 100% oral. We live in the hearing world and improving our hearing would make it easier for us to interact in the hearing world. Cochlear implants have been very popular for those group of people and I expect stem cells to follow.

The next step is for me to research the extent of how much stem cells can improve hearing. At this point, it's known that stem cells works on humans, is available now and the regenerated hair cells function great! I also have realistic expectations and will be happy with as little as 20db improvement.



30-40db improvement would get me to 0db in the lows and normal hearing in most frequencies. Ill hear environmental sounds similar to a hearing person and hear speech much better than CI, but still a little below that of a hearing person. My aided audiogram after stem cells could be better than what my dad hears unaided. If stem cells gets me to only 100db in the highs, ill just enable transposition to get me to better than 30db across.

I would be very surprised if stem cells gives me or most people enough hearing to not need HAs. Her results could be exceptional for all we know. We would need to see results from at least a dozen others to further determine the extent of the improvement. Ive researched the improvement in animal models and have come to the conclusion that the audiogram above reflects average improvement after stem cells. I would have a moderate to severe HL and be aided to normal dipping down to mild in the highest frequencies. This is a limitation of HA's gain.