Officer Continues Experimental ALS Treatment

POSTED: 11:44 am MST November 26, 2007

Video: Officer Travels To Greece For Next Step Of ALS Treatment
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PHOENIX -- A Phoenix police officer and his loved ones are waiting for any sign that a "make or break" step may have worked in his extraordinary attempt to potentially stop or even reverse his degenerative disease.

Officer Brian Howe's smile still radiates a hope that his body can't always match.

"It's feeling a little bit worse and more difficult," said J.J. Tuttle, Howe's best friend.

Howe still can't speak.


"Sometimes the swallowing has become a little bit more difficult," Tuttle said.

Howe is much thinner than he was a few months ago and his hands have lost sensation -- they're weak and they tingle. The changes are more signs of progression of the aggressive form of Lou Gherig's disease Howe is desperately trying to beat.

"Rather than sit back and watch the disease slowly peck away, I think this provided some hope and some lasting assurance that, hey, there might be something else out there within our reach that could heal him," Tuttle said.

Tuttle and Howe just returned from Greece, where Howe underwent the second, most critical step in his effort to beat the ALS that continues to degenerate his nerves and muscles.

Six months ago, the two journeyed to Israel for the first part of the experimental procedure.


"Initially, they took the bone marrow from Brian's system -- in Israel -- cultivated those cells, married those cells up with the stem cell mixture that they had been working on for the past five months," Tuttle said.

Once the cell base reached what doctors considered a healthy level, a team of Greek and Israeli doctors worked together in Athens to implant the mixture in to Howe's body. In Israel, only the initial part of the experimental procedure is allowed for non-Israeli citizens. Howe and Tuttle had to travel to Greece for the implantation because the system there is more flexible.

"They're trying to take those cells, make them healthy cells, put those cells where they need to be and watch that grow, and hopefully stop or maybe even retard the disease. And they're very optimistic," Tuttle said.

The next few months are crucial. This is if and when Howe and his doctors would see any signs or some degree of repair, which is something researchers say they have seen before.

"There is a gentleman who is suffering from ALS that was in a wheelchair. They described him as back riding his bicycle again," Tuttle said.

Howe will probably never return to firing his gun the way he used to as a member of the Phoenix Police Department's special weapons and tactics unit, but to be able to play ball with is kids the way he did six months ago is what he prays he'll do again for years to come.

"He said he would be ecstatic if the disease could be stopped, but any improvement is ultimately the hope," Tuttle said.

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