We watched with interest the segment entitled snake oil, and while we agree that this particular person, and doctor were not honest, and were taking advantage of those without hope, there is another side to stem cell treatments that you need to explore.

My wife, age 59, was diagnosed with coped 9 years ago. We went to all the specialists, and they all treated her symptoms with medicine. She was hospitalized many times over the next 5 years with pneumonia, each time reducing her lung function, until about a year ago she was on oxygen 24/7, and unable to bathe herself, or walk over a few steps with oxygen. Her doctor diagnosed her as end stage. herself, or walk over a few steps with oxygen. Her doctor diagnosed her as end stage.

While on a golf trip with friends, I was describing my wife's condition, a friend said that the wife of a friend of his had a similar condition, and that they went to Mexico for a stem cell treatment, and now she was able to go without oxygen, and had improved her lung function dramatically.

Of course I found this unbelievable, and asked for the friends phone number. I called the husband, and he basically told me that he was fearful of losing his wife, and found a team of doctors that offered stem cell treatments in Mexico. She had indeed improved to the point that they were going without oxygen during the day, and were able to resume a lot of daily activities that they were not able to do before. We contacted a Dr. Lopez and sought treatment in August 2009. If you go to that website, there is a video of us describing our situation, and the improvements we experienced.

My point of this is, there are many applications for stem cell therapies, that the US needs to be pursuing. My wife is now able to go without oxygen while sitting, and can walk short distances even without oxygen. She is able to bathe herself, and had energy that she lost years ago, all because of stem cell therapies. You can verify all of this with our local physician, Dr. Robert Yoachim at the Ark City Clinic, Arkansas City, Ks. 620-442-2100.

I feel 60 minutes should really take a good look at the stem cell issue. We are not talking embryonic, rather, the stem cells used for my wife were extracted from bone marrow in her own hip. There is a lot of experimental work being done, and people without hope are willing guinea pigs for something that might help their situation.