Implant a life-Changing experience

By Luis Fabregas

Tribune-Review

April 9, 2006

When Maribeth Cook suffered a stroke at 35, she desperately searched for treatments to repair the damage to her brain.

"I had lost my left side, and the pain never stopped," Cook, now 45, of Mechanicsville, N.Y., says from her winter home in Miami.

During a four-hour surgery in September 1999, doctors implanted 30 million fetal pig cells into Cook's brain.

Cook, who gave up a career as a dental hygienist, received the implant against her husband's wishes.

But the pig cells did the impossible.

"I could maneuver my body better; it was not as rigid," she says. "Something changed me."

Cook's pig cell implant was part of a safety trial conducted in five patients by Diacrin, a Charlestown, Mass., biotech firm. The trial was halted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration after two of the patients had seizures.

Other human trials using pig cells also have been stopped because of safety concerns.

Cook, however, says the implant changed her life.

She is now able to exercise. She walks at least three miles a day and swims. Although she wears a brace and her left arm doesn't function, she can move her toes and ankle.

"I am very glad I did (it)," she says. "I would have always wondered if it worked."

Luis Fabregas can be reached at lfabregas@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7998.

Copyright © 2006 The Tribune-Review Publishing Company.

This article posted June 10, 2006.