Cord blood questions (kind of long)

Thanks so much for all your answers. I guess maybe I will wait until she talks to Sloan Kettering in a few weeks to see if this is even a viable option.

Thanks for the info and all the answers. They did help!

Message edited 4/15/2009 9:06:31 AM.

Re: Cord blood questions (kind of long)

hope my info helped- took it down.

Message edited 4/15/2009 7:15:21 PM.

Re: Cord blood questions (kind of long)

I am quoting only your questions but I will take this down if you need me to. I left out your personal information


My Mom keeps saying that often there is not enough cells to help an adult.
1) Is that true? Yes. This is true. There has been some talk about a method to manufacture exact copies of stem cells. When that can be done, the person can then get a combination of human stem cells and duplicated stem cells.


2) Are there other companies besides ViaCord out there? There are many. We were able to narrow our choice down between ViaCord and CBR and then we picked ViaCord.


3) I know this sounds awful.. but, DH and I simply don't have the money to do this.. We just don't So would it be weird for me to ask --------to pay for it?

Well, I don't think you will know ahead of time whether she will be able to use it and it may be weird for that reason. If she cannot use it, I don't think she should have to pay for storage but if you go through the process of having it collected, I doubt you would want to discard it.

4) Is it only really benificial to siblings and immediate family? Can they tell before hand if collecting cord blood would help her (meaing do they have to be a match and is there a way of telling if the baby would be her match?).

No, it is not only beneficial to siblings and family but I do not know whether they can tell ahead of time whether someone is a match. I would think that they cannot tell unless you put your baby at risk for them to test the cord blood.

Re: Cord blood questions (kind of long)

From my understanding more than just siblings can benefit from the cord blood. It depends on how much of a match they are. Also, I know that some companies such as Viacord are working on ways to duplicated the stored stem cells so that there are more of them that can be used in the future.

There are other companies out there and I personally think it would be weird to ask your aunt to pay for it but that is just me. As for the cost, we got Viacord for about $1700 so there are discounts out there as well as payment plans.

Personally, I would call companies such as Viacord and CBR and ask them these questions.

Re: Cord blood questions (kind of long)

I don't know the answer to these questions, but I just want to offer some hugs I am sorry to hear about your aunt.

Message edited 4/14/2009 11:29:03 PM.

Re: Cord blood questions (kind of long)

I used cryocell they were alot more cheaper than others I think I pain about $1200 and they will work a plan with you...I am not sure of everything that it can help but I am sure that is one of them...I think that storing CB is an insurance plan...like home/car insurance you may never need it but it is there if you do

Re: Cord blood questions (kind of long)

One thing you want to look into and ask questions about is whether her insurance (if you CAN use it) will cover the procedure. I have had several people (MD's) including my OB tell me that in many cases the insurance companies are refusing to pay for treatments with cord blood citing that they are experimental treatments - so you would hate to go thru saving it only to find out that the treatments are denied and then are too expensive for you to pay for OOP.

There are many other companies out there besides the two you hear most on here. My uncle is a doctor and my cousin banked their children's blood b.c my aunt has parkinson's. They did extensive research and ended up going with another company (sorry don't remember the name) that does exclusively cord blood banking and research. They were also much more reasonable. There is a site that lists all of the different companies and you can get a lot of information from that site.