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When Julie and Jason heard about a research study re-infusing children with their own cord blood stem cells to help treat cerebral palsy, they were thankful they’d saved their daughter’s just years before. Rebecca was born with a neurological impairment that causes difficulty speaking and using her limbs. Despite having the physical ability to do so, Rebecca’s brain prevents her from executing familiar and learned movements. Although verbal communication may be a challenge for this bright five year old girl, her constant smile, big hugs and love of playing with other kids says it all – Rebecca is one of the happiest, healthiest, and friendliest little girls you could ever meet.

In July 2009 Rebecca received a re-infusion of her own cord blood stem cells in the hopes of improving her condition. Though Julie and Jason have not seen much progress in Rebecca since the re-infusion of her cord blood

“I keep thinking, what if I knew about the Duke University clinical study and we hadn’t saved Katie’s cord blood— we would not even have had this chance. She has a chance,” Katie’s mom Amy says. Her husband Paul chimes in, “If this helps Katie—it’s huge.”

Amy and Paul are talking about their daughter Katie—a sweet, loving, social and affectionate four year old with a hearty laugh, infectious smile and lots of curiosity. Katie was born with a condition called hypotonia — low muscle tone that affects both her gross and fine motor skills. As a result, Katie can’t walk independently, she never had the coordination to crawl (although she’s quite the scooter!) and she was not physically able to sit until she was 16 months old—almost a year later than typical child development. Katie’s speech is also affected—she is currently saying a few words but working hard with therapists to learn to pronounce different letter sounds.

Rewind a handful of years when Amy and Paul were expecting. Amy got an email from her cousin. “Have you considered banking cord blood?” her cousin…

With two young, healthy children—a boy and a girl—Kelly and Corey thought their family was complete. Then they learned they were expecting. While Kelly had considered cord blood banking for her older two children, for this pregnancy, she decided to definitely bank the baby’s cord blood.

When Corey asked her more about cord blood banking, Kelly admitted, “I don’t know a lot about it, but I know enough that it could potentially save the life of our baby or of her siblings.”

And, they didn’t think too much more about it, even after their baby girl, Cadence, was born with a large knot in her umbilical cord. Kelly explains, “I remember thinking how lucky we were that the knot didn’t kill her. Never for a second did I think it had caused any kind of brain damage.”

Surprises. They come in all shapes in sizes. Some are welcome with open arms, and others, well, not so much. Today’s blog post is about one family’s remarkable journey – one filled with surprises – and their perseverance in handling whatever came their way.

For Kahla and Brandon, it all started when Kahla was six months pregnant. She was driving when out of nowhere, an 18-wheeler plowed into her car and broke her pelvis, sacrum and the bones in her thigh and leg. Miraculously, Mom and baby survived the crash.