Michelle Johnson and Jeff Maginnis got word at her 20-week ultrasound that her developing baby was diagnosed with spina bifida.
DAMASCUS, Ore. An Oregon baby became the second person in the world to undergo a ground breaking surgery after he was diagnosed with spina bifida while still in the womb.
Tobi Maginnis, now 8 months old, was born happy and healthy thanks to the procedure by a team of doctors at the University of California, Davis.
At home in Damascus, Tobi Maginnis is all smiles and laughs.
"Even when we were in [the] NICU, he smiled and he would laugh in his sleep as a baby. Three days old, laughing in his sleep," said Michelle Johnson and Jeff Maginnis, Tobi's parents.
That joy extends to their entire family after a long journey to get to this point.
"Jeff and I met and I have a 13-year-old son and Jeff has a 6-year-old daughter and we decided we needed one more to complete our family," Johnson said.
But after Johnson's 20-week ultrasound last year, the couple learned some distressing news during a call with the radiologist.
"His voice was just trembling," Johnson said. "He says, 'I need to talk to you about your ultrasound.' And I knew something was wrong. He said 'There's some abnormalities. It appears to be spina bifida.'"
According to health experts, spina bifida occurs when spinal tissue fails to fuse properly during the early stages of pregnancy, leading to a range of lifelong cognitive, mobility, urinary and bowel disabilities. It affects 1,500 to 2,000 children in the U.S. each year.
"Just kind of shock," Maginnis said about learning of the diagnosis. "There's this very serious problem with your fetus, with your baby. What do you do? How do you react? How do you move forward?"
Because options in Oregon for fetal surgery were extremely limited, the couple had to look outside the state. This led them to UC Davis and a clinical trial that makes use of stem cells to treat spina bifida. The clinical trial, known formally as the CuRe Trial: Cellular Therapy for In Utero Repair of Myelomeningocele, is funded by the states stem cell agency, California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
"I tell [Jeff] all the time, I would rather be in the CuRe trial than win the Powerball because of how rare and exclusive it is, and how life-changing it's been for our son."
After several screenings, interviews and acceptance into the trial, the couple moved down to California. She was the second patient to enroll in the trial.
"I think I was nervous, but I was also relieved knowing we're pursuing the best option for our baby," Johnson said.
Despite fears and concerns, with the help of a 40 person team, the surgery was a success. At 25 weeks gestation, Johnson had the landmark fetal surgery and stem cell procedure, where stem cells were placed directly on her fetuss spinal cord using a special patch to repair the spina bifida defect, according to UC Davis.
The couple spent the rest of the pregnancy in California, with a C-section scheduled at 36 weeks.
"They put the drape down and they held Tobi up. It was like Simba in the The Lion King. A Pride Rock moment," Johnson said. "And then Jeff said, 'It's a boy!' And that's how we found out Tobi was a boy."
Born February 1, 2022, Tobi is happy, healthy and full of personality.
"Tobi is the second baby in the entire world to receive stem cells during gestational surgery for spina bifida repair," Johnson said.
She praised the staff at UC Davis for their work and called them "talented."
"After 10 years of animal trials, to finally be able to do this on humans, this is exciting and I just hope it continues to become more available for all moms," Johnson said.
At this point, Tobi doesn't need any more procedures, but doctors will monitor his progress for several more years so the team can continue to assess the stem cell surgical procedure's safety and effectiveness.
Original post:
Oregon baby undergoes fetal surgery for spina bifida | kgw.com
- Neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis - Wikipedia - November 16th, 2022
- Examining cooperation in nature: Q&A with author Kristin Ohlson - Mongabay.com - September 25th, 2022
- Aileron Therapeutics Announces Late-Breaking Oral Presentation of Non-Clinical Data Demonstrating ALRN-6924 Protected Human Hair Follicles and Their... - May 15th, 2022
- Stem cell timeline: The history of a medical sensation ... - January 5th, 2022
- Gene Therapy for Hearing Loss on the Horizon : The Hearing Journal - LWW Journals - January 5th, 2022
- How to live longer: Green tea may halt brain decline and prolong life - Toys Matrix - December 10th, 2021
- Harvard study links exposure to wildfire smoke and COVID-19 with implications for BC - The Globe and Mail - August 31st, 2021
- YOUR HEALTH: Finding cures by tracking cells - WQAD.com - July 21st, 2021
- 2017 Amtrak tragedy becomes call-to-action for Blood Donor Day this Sat., Dec. 18 - ilovekent.net - December 18th, 2020
- Blood donors needed to keep blood supply stocked for local patients - The B-Town (Burien) Blog - The B-Town Blog - October 16th, 2020
- Stem Cell & Regenerative Therapies | Oregon Regenerative ... - July 4th, 2020
- STEM CELL THERAPY IN PORTLAND, OREGON - Cornell Pain Clinic - July 4th, 2020
- Oregon Medical Centers Regenerative Medicine ... - July 4th, 2020
- Hospitals to Resume Elective Surgeries, Triggering a Surge in Blood Needs - southsoundtalk.com - May 17th, 2020
- 15 Good News Stories To Tackle The COVID-19 Sadness - IFLScience - March 22nd, 2020
- 2020 Emerging Scholars: Dr. Cathy Wong - Diverse: Issues in Higher Education - February 6th, 2020
- Five recent drug target discoveries for pancreatic cancer - Drug Target Review - December 13th, 2019
- Personalized Stem Cells, Inc. Announces First Patients Treated in FDA Approved Clinical Trial for Treatment of Osteoarthritis with Stem Cells - PR Web - November 18th, 2019
- Stem Cell Therapy Salem OR - oregonmedicalcenters.com - September 7th, 2019
- About | OHSU - September 7th, 2019
- Saccharomyces cerevisiae - Wikipedia - May 13th, 2019
- PRP and Stem Cell Joint Regeneration | Portland Oregon - April 5th, 2019
- Adult Stem Cell Orthopedics - Oregon Regenerative Medicine - April 5th, 2019
- What are stem cells? Oregon Light Therapy - April 5th, 2019
- Inhibitory postsynaptic potential - Wikipedia - April 3rd, 2019
- Stem rust - Wikipedia - March 11th, 2019
- How A "Full Body Stem Cell Makeover" Works - Ben ... - March 9th, 2019
- Stem Cells | Medford | Ashland | Southern Oregon - December 23rd, 2018
- Stem Cell Therapy Portland Oregon | Stem Cell Therapy - September 2nd, 2018
- Portland, Oregon Stem Cell Transplants, West Haven Sylvan ... - August 18th, 2018
- Oregon Stem Cell Center Result of OHSU Research Strides ... - July 26th, 2018
- Stem Cells to Relieve Low Back Pain? WebMD - October 14th, 2017
- Gene editing used to repair diseased genes in embryos - NHSUK - NHS Choices - August 25th, 2017
- Stem Cells, Fetal Tissue Research & Cloning - Oregon Right ... - August 25th, 2017
- New Biomedical Engineering Grants Aim at Heart Failure and Resistant High Blood Pressure - Newswise (press release) - August 25th, 2017
- Altering human heredity? Researchers repair disease-causing gene - TRT World - August 17th, 2017
- The Public Needs to Weigh In on the Ethics of Genetically Engineering Humans - Slate Magazine - August 17th, 2017
- First embryo gene-repair holds promise for inherited disease - HollandSentinel.com - August 14th, 2017
- Early gene-editing holds promise for preventing inherited diseases - The Jerusalem Post - August 6th, 2017
- Embryo Gene-Editing Experiment Reignites Ethical Debate - Scientific American - August 6th, 2017
- Meet the Oregon researcher whose embryo work is shaking the medical world - Portland Business Journal - August 6th, 2017
- Editing human embryos with CRISPR is moving ahead now's the ... - Phys.Org - August 6th, 2017
- Scientists genetically modify human embryos for first time, reports say - Medical Xpress - August 6th, 2017
- First safe repair of disease-causing gene in human embryos - Virginian-Pilot - August 6th, 2017
- The Center for Traditional Medicine in Lake Oswego, Oregon - November 23rd, 2016
- News: VetStem Cell Therapy - November 23rd, 2016
- Oregon Stem Cell Center to focus on adult stem cells as ... - November 20th, 2016
- Oregon Regenerative Medicine - Advanced Joint and Injury ... - August 7th, 2016
- OHSU research team successfully converts human skin cells ... - October 19th, 2015
- Stem cells definition of Stem cells in the Free Online ... - February 17th, 2015
- Oregon Scientists Frustrated At Change In British Human Embryo Policy - February 3rd, 2015
- Obesity, high-fat diets during pregnancy could harm fetus - December 30th, 2014
- Arachnoiditis Stem Cell Treatment | eHow - November 23rd, 2014
- Oregon | Pet Stem Cell Therapy - October 23rd, 2014
- How to Volunteer for Clinical Stem Cell Research | eHow - October 3rd, 2014
- oregon Stem Cell Clinic - August 22nd, 2014
- Oregon Stem Cell Treatment | Stem Cell Treatments - August 22nd, 2014