[lurkingforacure]

Saw this and was shocked to read about a 2009 study from Levesque, despite trying to find out, we have not been able to glean much of anything about Levesque and his patient, Dennis Turner, who testified before Congress...here's the link:

http://www.pennlive.com/letters/inde...arkinsons.html

Anyone know anything about this?

[soccertese]

Originally Posted by lurkingforacure

Saw this and was shocked to read about a 2009 study from Levesque, despite trying to find out, we have not been able to glean much of anything about Levesque and his patient, Dennis Turner, who testified before Congress...here's the link:

http://www.pennlive.com/letters/inde...arkinsons.html

Anyone know anything about this?

http://www.nrlc.org/news_and_views/Feb09/nv021709.html

sure hasn't convinced anyone to fund more research.
i heard turner started to get worse, in fact i think he said that during senate hearing. but did improve for a few years? seemed very complicated, expensive procedure. brain biopsy, isolate/grow neural stem cellsfor months and then reinsert.

levesque sold patents and eventually got them back.

[madamlash]

Based on the original claim of somewhere around 80% improvement, I made an appointment. I had also read that his successful patient started to slide back into symptoms after 3 or so years.
I attended my appointment. It did not strike me that this doctor is a movement expert (just my opinion). He seemed to be more into back surgery and neurosurgery. However, he spent quite a bit of time with me and was quite willing to answer any and all of my questions.
I'm a pretty straight forward, no holds barred kind of person given to asking rather pointed questions. I inquired about a possible future clinical trial in which I might participate. There seems to be some delay in his getting a lab approved to prepare the stem cells before he can begin clinical trials. I asked the doctor what kind of check I would need to write right now to get his surgery. I was given a number of around $150,000. He did not specifically say that if I wrote the check, I would be scheduled but... the number was mentioned so I'm passing that on for what it is worth.

[soccertese]

Originally Posted by madamlash

Based on the original claim of somewhere around 80% improvement, I made an appointment. I had also read that his successful patient started to slide back into symptoms after 3 or so years.
I attended my appointment. It did not strike me that this doctor is a movement expert (just my opinion). He seemed to be more into back surgery and neurosurgery. However, he spent quite a bit of time with me and was quite willing to answer any and all of my questions.
I'm a pretty straight forward, no holds barred kind of person given to asking rather pointed questions. I inquired about a possible future clinical trial in which I might participate. There seems to be some delay in his getting a lab approved to prepare the stem cells before he can begin clinical trials. I asked the doctor what kind of check I would need to write right now to get his surgery. I was given a number of around $150,000. He did not specifically say that if I wrote the check, I would be scheduled but... the number was mentioned so I'm passing that on for what it is worth.

very interesting, i seem to remember he had a non-md associate that was the brains behind the procedure, sure created a stir when the news came out, raised everyone's hope, dennis turner was famous, talked about being able to go to africa and photograph lions and running for his life or something like that.

[pegleg]

Yep. Back when we had "Grassroots Connection," Dr. Levesque was one of the first people we interviewed. He used autologous (the patient's own) cells and implanted them into the brain of Dennis Turner. Levesque got a new lab out of it and was singing the praises of Turner's 90% improvement. After checking up on this claim, Turner had had DBS surgery first, but Levesque said it was "turned off" when these measures were taken.

I don't know if Paula can find that old interview or not, but it was interesting. Then a lady active on the Toronto Listserv investigated - even found Turner and talked with him - but the guy progressed pretty rapidly and dropped from the news feeds.

There have been many like this. (sigh)