Officer Continues Experimental ALS Treatment
 

Officer Continues Experimental ALS Treatment

POSTED: 11:44 am MST November 26, 2007
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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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Previous story: Phoenix Officer Travels To Israel For ALS Treatment


Phoenix Officer Travels To Israel For ALS Treatment

POSTED: 5:02 pm MDT May 25, 2007
UPDATED: 5:11 pm MDT May 25, 2007

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Video: Officer Battling ALS Undergoes Israeli Procedure
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PHOENIX -- CBS 5 first brought you the story of Officer Brian Howe a few weeks ago.

Howe is a Phoenix police officer battling ALS, or Lou Gherig's disease. The degenerative nerve and muscle disease has already stolen his ability to speak and now threatens to take his life.


Howe and his best friend recently went to Israel, where he underwent a highly experimental procedure.


J.J. Tuttle, a lieutenant with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, said there was never any doubt that he would accompany his best friend to Israel.

"It's just very difficult to watch your friend, your buddy, suffer, and you have to ask, 'Why?'" Tuttle said.

That's why Tuttle made the potentially life-saving trek with Howe for an experimental stem cell transplant.

Dr. Shimon Slavin is a professor and director of cell therapy and transplantation research at Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem.

He took bone marrow from Howe with the hope that the marrow stem cells will eventually fuse with the degenerating nerve cells, transfer normal signals to the damaged cells, and ultimately result in nerve cell function.

The procedure offers no guarantees but plenty of hope.

"I think the outcome to this is we might have an answer here in a couple of months, hopefully," Tuttle said.

Howe's wife, Jacque, stayed home with the kids.

"I didn't want to leave the kids behind and both of us go over there," she said.

Howe stayed in constant contact via e-mail.

Howe is sore, tired and weighs a little less. And he isn't cured the way his children had hoped.

"They, I think, thought he was going to come back and be fixed. And that was really, I think, surprising to them when he got off the plane and we were there and, you know, they were kind of questioning that," Jacque Howe said.

"There's so many open-ended questions that we just don't know, that we just have to believe in faith. And just trust God in every decision and in every step of this procedure. And that's, I believe, what we're doing," Tuttle said.

Slavin emphasized that the procedure is part of research that is highly experimental and there is absolutely no proof or guarantee that it will work, and that it's not for just anyone.

The Phoenix Police Department is holding a benefit luncheon next week to help raise money for Howe's medical expenses. The lunch will be held Wednesday, May 30, at Outback Steakhouse at 2820 N. 75th Avenue from noon to 2 p.m.
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