Bernie van Zyl’s Successful Stem Cell Treatment for Congestive Heart Failure
Within the next decade, it may be a matter of routine for heart patients to use their own stem cells harvested from bone marrow to rejuvenate their heart muscles. In addition to CNN journalist Charlie Hoff and Bobby Gregson, 73-year-old Bernie van Zyl received his own stem cells two years ago after open-heart surgery and other treatments for congestive heart failure. He had his first heart attack in 2000 and had sextuple (6) bypass surgery.
By 2004, Bernie van Zyl was sleeping almost 20 hours a day and taking up to 800 mg of morphine to keep the crushing angina in check. He was disoriented from the medication and exhausted from the paltry supply of oxygenated blood that his heart was squeezing out.
He was alive, but he wasn’t living.
On a typical day, van Zyl got up to have breakfast and take his medicine, then climbed back into bed. He would rise for lunch, then return to sleep until his wife woke him for dinner. Afterward, he napped until the 11 o’clock news, then retired for the night.
Not much of a life, is it? For him or his wife.
After stem cell treatment, Bernie is experiencing far less chest pain and can even walk on his own without supplemental oxygen. His heart ejection fraction has increased from the low 20’s to an almost normal 47.
Reminder: I have a very special guest tomorrow who I hope will someday receive the same good news as Bernie.
Orlando Sentinel, January 28, 2007
Photo: francesbean
Tags: bernie van zyl, congestive heart failure, chf, heart, heart disease, stem cells, stem cell therapy, diseases, illness, health
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POSTED IN: Hearty Research, People With Heart Disease
1 opinion for Bernie van Zyl’s Successful Stem Cell Treatment for Congestive Heart Failure
A Hearty Life » Mark Herpel and Congestive Heart Failure - Part 1
Jan 29, 2007 at 12:16 pm
[...] As I’ve been hinting at over the weekend, I have a special guest at A Hearty Life this week. Mark Herpel is a b5media colleague at Digital Money World who responded to my nosy question asking about the contents of people’s medicine chest (his will be featured later in the series). To my surprise, he said he had congestive heart failure so of course I had to know more. Here’s part 1 of my interview with Mark. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be healthy one second, fall ill without explanation, then told you’re dying the next, you must read Mark’s vivid description of his experience. [...]
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