The Repository, Canton, Ohio
By DIANA ROSSETTI Living Section writer
August 3, 2004
A month after paraplegic Don Sacco underwent a fetal cell procedure in China intended to restore his ability to walk, he is still using a motorized wheelchair.
But that does not mean the procedure, unapproved in the United States, was unsuccessful, he stressed last week.
Leaning slightly in his chair, Sacco demonstrated the hip movement he has noticed since returning from Beijing on June 29. There is a burning sensation in his feet that was not there prior to the fetal cell procedure performed by Dr. Hongyun Huang, a surgeon trained in the United States. The back of his left arm is no longer numb. And, Sacco added, he has begun to perspire again, another bodily function that had ceased after he was injured in an automobile accident.
“He said I would not see anything for at least a month, maybe two,” said Sacco, the 48-year-old owner of Broadway Iron & Metal in Alliance.
In the meantime, Sacco exercises in his family pool in West Township, Columbiana County. Physical therapist Erin Powers works with him at Alliance Community Hospital one day a week and her colleague, Tiffany Stout, helps him exercise at the Alliance YMCA pool one other day weekly. On Thursdays, he travels to Akron for acupuncture.
Sacco’s confidence in his neurosurgeon’s ability is obvious. While the use of cells from aborted fetuses is unquestioned in China, it is an issue emotionally and politically charged in the United States. He said the surgeon had performed the procedure 400 times in China.
Sacco figured the transportation and month of food and lodging for him and his wife, Dawn, plus the cost of the procedure, totaled $25,000. While the cost was high, Sacco puts no price on the chance of joining his two young sons in their activities once again.
“But I already told him, if I walk, he gets a new BMW,” Sacco said of Huang.
Huang’s successes on patients with paralysis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease) were featured on the “CBS Evening News with Dan Rather” July 27.
For Sacco, who was an active, athletic man before his accident, each regained sensation is encouraging. He hopes to have much to talk about — and more to demonstrate — when he meets with the surgeon Sept. 18 while he is in Grand Rapids, Mich., lecturing.
E-mail Dr. Hongyun Huang at:
Huang’s office telephone number in Beijing is 011-86-10-852-31-762.
When Huang is in the United States, as he will be Sept. 18, he can be reached on his cell phone, (973) 641-3445.
Don Sacco can be contacted by calling (330) 936-1073.