Dr. Stanley Jones, a Houston orthopedic surgeon and personal friend of Perry's, has been a staunch advocate for the healing properties of adult stem cells since last year, when he says he was effectively cured of his debilitating arthritis after being injected with his own stem cells in Japan. Like the governor, Jones, who is an associate professor at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston and the founder a Houston medical day spa, staunchly opposes research into embryonic stem cells.
Reached by cell phone in Vail, Colo., late Wednesday, Jones said that Perry believes adult stem cell therapy is the next big breakthrough in medicine, and that the governor had done so much research that he had no qualms about the procedure.
"He said, ‘You know I don't mind being the first. I like it,'" Jones said......
When it came time for Perry's procedure — the first Jones, a longtime orthopedic surgeon, had performed — Jones took two teaspoons of fatty tissue from the governor's hip and put it into culture, then waited several weeks as the stem cells expanded in the Sugar Land RNL BIO lab. During the subsequent surgery, Jones injected the governor's stem cells into his spine and also into his blood stream, with the intention of speeding the healing process. (Perry, who spent two nights in the hospital, has called the procedure a success.)
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