STEM CELLS DID LITTLE TO END MY AGONISING KNEE PAIN
Mark Dini, 39, is a health and fitness coach who lives in rickmansworth, Herts. He paid £7,000 for stem cell treatment for knee pain. His father, Howard, 66, a retired supplier of office equipment, from Hatch End, north West London, was also treated. Mark says:
I PAID thousands to have stem cells injected into my aching knee but, for all the good it did, I might as well have burnt the money.
I was 15 when I first hurt my knee. I dislocated it during rugby practice, badly tearing the cartilage inside.
It took two years of treatment, including surgery and physiotherapy, but it seemed to heal perfectly and I was able to play rugby and cricket and do karate and all the sports I loved again.
Then, two years ago, I twisted it while lifting weights, doing more damage to the cartilage. The pain was a 12 out of ten, and it was there every day, no matter what I was doing.
I used my knowledge as a personal trainer to devise a physio programme, but the pain was unbearable and I was at my wits’ end.
I self-referred to a private hospital using my health insurance and they suggested having an operation to stabilise my knee. But that would mean taking eight weeks off work. Being self-employed, I couldn’t afford to do that. So I researched non-surgical options on the internet and found a clinic offering what sounded like the perfect solution.
At a consultation early last year, I was told there was an 80 per cent chance that stem cells — taken from the fat in places such as my stomach and hip, and injected into my knee — would heal the damage to my cartilage that was causing me so much pain.
What’s more, I would be back at work in two weeks! There was no mention of side-effects. It seemed heaven-sent.
In fact, it sounded so good that I suggested to my dad, who had been troubled with knee pain for years and was waiting for a knee replacement, that he go there, too.
I had the £7,000 procedure in March last year. Fat was sucked out of my stomach, hips and bottom and spun down in a centrifuge to separate out the stem cells. These were then injected into my knee.
At first, it seemed to have worked. But, two months later, I felt a twinge and the pain gradually got worse and worse. My dad, who also paid £7,000 and was treated a week or two before me, also found the pain went initially. But, after a few weeks, it was back, and soon was worse than before.
He has since had a knee replacement on the NHS and I am having conventional surgery to repair the damage to my cartilage later this week.
My surgeon told me that I’m not the first person to come to him after a stem cell treatment that didn’t work.
I feel guilty for getting my dad involved, but the idea that stem cells could repair damage without surgery was so seductive. But it was all smoke and mirrors.
We are £14,000 down and I feel so stupid, but I was desperate.