British and Greek doctors used stem cells and an artificial heart to save a Greek man

Sky News reports on a Greek man whose heart condition was treated using a Jarvic mechanical heart pump and 6 million of his own adult stem cells.

The Greek patient had been so dangerously ill that he had been kept in hospital for four months. He had suffered at least two heart attacks and his cardiac muscle was too weak to push enough blood around his body.

Drug treatment and other surgical devices had failed to improve his condition.

In a radical attempt to save his life, surgeons implanted a Jarvic mechanical device into his heart to divert blood away from the damaged pumping chamber.

In many patients that is enough for the heart to begin to heal - sometimes so well that the mechanical pump can be safely removed weeks or months later.

But in Ioannis' case the cardiac muscle had been badly damaged. So surgeons injected six million stem cells that they had earlier extracted from his bone marrow.

The stem cells kickstart a recovery by building new muscle and releasing chemicals that attract new blood vessels into the damaged areas.

FULL STORY

Health Care Alert, Focus on the U.S. Senate

Please Contact Senator Debbie Stabenow

Both houses of Congress are pushing towards votes on sweeping health care reform bills that currently contain far-reaching provisions which endanger the lives of senior citizens and unborn children. This week the U.S. Senate Finance Committee may vote on amendments which address these concerns.

On September 16, 2009, Senator Max Baucus (D-MT.), the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, released a draft health care bill called the "America's Healthy Future Act." The Finance Committee is scheduled to begin considering amendments to the bill, including prolife amendments, on Tuesday, September 29.

The rationing concern revolves around one provision that penalizes Medicare doctors who provide higher levels of medical treatment to senior citizens. Senator Jon Kyl, a prolife Arizona Republican, and Senator Pat Roberts, a prolife Kansas Republican, are behind amendments. In addition to the rationing concerns in the Baucus bill, federally funded abortion is included in the proposed legislation.

The bill contains provisions that would send massive federal subsidies directly to both private insurance plans and government-chartered cooperatives that pay for elective abortion.

To fix these problems, prolife senators Orrin Hatch of Utah and Mike Enzi of Wyoming have proposed a handful of amendments.

Learn more by visiting Right to Life of Michigan at www.rtl.org.

ACTION:
Contact Senator Debbie Stabenow, who is a member of the Senate Finance Committee and urge her to "support amendments to make sure rationing and abortion funding are explicitly excluded from the Baucus bill."

Please act today. Votes on amendments may take place tomorrow.

Contact Information:

Senator Debbie Stabenow (D)
133 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4822
Fax: (202) 228-0325

Web Site:
www.stabenow.senate.gov/

Grand Rapids man saves life by donating his adult stem cells

On September 27, 2009, the Grand Rapids Press shared the story of how Grand Rapids resident Chris Diemer recently met Jorge Rodriguez, a man from Florida whose life was saved by Diemer’s adult stem cells.

Diemer, 31, who works for Gordon Food Service, regularly gives blood at Michigan Community Blood Center on Fuller Avenue NE. He didn't know a lot about bone-marrow transplants until a worker asked if he wanted to be tested to determine if he matched anyone needing a transplant.

"I said, 'Sure, I'll do it.' I didn't really think I'd be called."

A couple of months later, he got the call.

He was concerned about the procedure. He thought he would have to undergo surgery for bone marrow to be extracted. Instead, stem cells were taken by a machine that drew blood from one arm and returned it to the other in a six-hour process.

"I did it because I knew it was the right thing to do," he said.

On Dec. 19, 2007, Rodriguez had the transplant.

"I was relieved and excited," he said. "I would have passed away. The chemo was working, but the cancer would have returned. It would've returned stronger. I would have passed away."

FULL STORY

Abortion linked to premature births

A recent study published in the BJOB: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology found that women who have had abortions are more likely to experience premature birth with subsequent pregnancies.

The review of 37 case studies found that women who had undergone more than one abortion had a 72 per cent increased risk of having children with low birthweight and a 93 per cent increased risk of having a premature baby.

It also found that women who had an abortion in the first or second trimester had a 35 per cent increased risk of giving birth to a low-weight baby and a 36 per cent increased risk of having a premature baby.

FULL STORY

PDF of the study

“Abortion is always out of fashion!”

A brewery in Grand Rapids recently informed charity organizers that their brewery wouldn’t participate in a fashion show fundraiser for America’s #1 abortion provider.

After angry calls and letters started pouring in, Founders President Mike Stevens told organizers this week they had to switch to another local, and less controversial, charity. Kids Food Basket, which provides meals for local students, was selected.

"Our goal is simple, make the best beer we can and focus on that and that only," Stevens said in a written statement.

Rockford resident Amy Oatley said she was among those who objected to Planned Parenthood's involvement in the event. She said she sent e-mails to the show's organizers protesting their choice because it goes against her anti-abortion beliefs.

"When I heard you were going to tie this in with raising funds for Planned Parenthood, the country's leading abortion provider, I said no thanks!" Oatley told the group. "Abortion is always out of fashion!"

FULL STORY

Denial, Evasion and Distortion

No, this isn't about an upcoming blockbuster movie ... it's about health care reform.

Mixed messages have made it difficult for many to discern what's fact or fiction in regards to health care reform.

Listen to an update on national health care reform efforts from Right to Life of Michigan President Barbara Listing.

The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote soon, perhaps in late September, on "health care reform" legislation (H.R. 3200) that contains far-reaching pro-abortion provisions, including a new nationwide insurance plan run entirely by the federal government that would cover all elective abortions.

The Democratic leaders who hold majority control in the U.S. Senate also have several versions of health-care restructuring bills that will be debated in the near future.

The health care bill recently approved by three committees in the House of Representatives would operate a nationwide "public option" insurance plan that would be authorized to cover abortion on demand. The bill would also provide federal subsidies to private insurance plans that cover elective abortions.

The pro-abortion Capps-Waxman Amendment that was added in the House Energy and Commerce Committee explicitly ratified these pro-abortion effects. This pro-abortion amendment was opposed by all of the prolife members of the committee. The committee rejected the prolife Stupak-Pitts Amendment (Prolife Rep. Bart Stupak represents Michigan's 1st Congressional District), which would have removed elective abortion from the scope of government-operated and government-subsidized insurance plans. We must keep the federal government from running an abortion insurance plan and oppose government subsidies for private plans that cover elective abortions.

For months, Administrative and Congressional proponents of the present health care reform bills have misrepresented the actual language in the bills that would result in government funding of elective abortions. Articles highlighting the misinformation regarding abortion and health care continue to pile up. FactCheck.org, New York Times, Associated Press and TIME Magazine highlight how abortion is included in current health care proposals.

How do we know abortion will be included in proposed health care reform legislation even if the word "abortion" doesn't appear in the legislation? The history of Medicaid shows that the federal government will fund abortion unless it is explicitly excluded.

Action Needed

Two areas of health care reform which need to be addressed include abortion coverage and rationing of health care. Contact your two U.S. Senators and your U.S. House Representative with the following two messages:

* abortion must be explicitly excluded from any health care/insurance reform legislation; and

* any health care restructuring providing coverage for the uninsured must have a sustainable, reliable means of full funding to prevent rationing.


Helpful Links:

Congressional Contact Information

Suggestions for letters to the editor and on-line posts

Sign On-Line Petition

Print Paper Petition to Circulate

Proposed U.S. House National Health Care Legislation -- 1,018 pages

Print and distribute this Action Alert to let others know about national health care reform plans

Right to Life of Michigan President Barbara Listing's update on national health care reform

Chart showing how health care bills equal government funded abortion

Abortion funding myth lingers in the national health care debate

While addressing the joint session of Congress on Wednesday, September 9, President Barack Obama said, "One more misunderstanding I want to clear up -- under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions."

The reality is that the Obama-backed House bill would explicitly authorize the federal government insurance plan to pay for elective abortions and would explicitly authorize subsidies for private abortion insurance -- and all with federal dollars, which are the only kind of dollars that the federal government can spend. Numerous attempts with amendments were made during House Committee meetings to explicitly exclude abortion from national health care reform, but the attempts were defeated. A simple question for our President is: "If federal dollars will not be used to fund abortions, than why can't abortion be explicitly excluded from the plan?"

Right to Life of Michigan will be monitoring national health care reform and will keep you abreast of key happenings. But for now, keep the pressure on with our two U.S.Senators and your U.S. House Representative to "explicitly exclude" abortion from any health care reform.

Go on record TODAY that you oppose abortion in health care reform. The message is:
Abortion and abortion funding must be "explicitly excluded" from any health care/insurance reform legislation.

Action Item:

Call, fax and e-mail Senator Carl Levin, Senator Debbie Stabenow and your U.S. House Representative and let them know abortion and abortion funding must be "explicitly excluded " from any health care/insurance reform legislation.

Congressional Contact Information
Oppose Making Abortion Part of Health Care Reform

Health Care Reform Should Serve Women, Not Hurt Them

Post-Abortion Voices Join Health Care Debate

"Abortion didn’t solve our problems; it only created new ones." Thus say the women and men who resorted to abortion and ended up regretting it. Their voices are heard in the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, and in the video below.

Please spread this video far and wide, as our nation debates health care reform and as many Americans demand that such reform not include an expansion of abortion.

Please also help us spread the testimonies of all who have joined the Silent No More Awareness Campaign. Learn more at the links to the right of the video.

Link to video

British Doctors Use Adult Stem Cells to Treat Hip Ailments

Surgeons at Spire Hospital in Southhampton have been using a new technique to help treat patients with hip ailments. They mix adult stem cells from a patient's own bone marrow with ground up bone fragments from another patient and then put the mix into a spot where they had previously removed dead bone tissue. This is an alternative therapy to artificial hip replacement.

Carl Millard had the stem cell procedure last year. He can now walk normally, without any pain.

"I feel great," he said. "If this can prevent people having to have a hip replacement, I think it is wonderful."

FULL STORY