LOS ANGELES, June 19, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An independent study has disproved the claims of “miracle” cures made by a Beijing doctor, Hongyun Huang, who uses cells derived from aborted foetal tissue.
Huang’s clinic has been the destination for hundreds of clients from around the world willing to pay thousands of dollars to be cured of illnesses where conventional medicine has failed.
The study, published in the journal Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, shows that it is likely Huang is falsifying his results. Huang’s surgery involves drilling holes in the skull or spinal column of patients and injecting the cells directly.
The Boston Globe reports that the study followed seven spinal cord injury patients, none of whom experienced significant improvements. Five suffered potentially dangerous complications. The study says that one patient came back to the US with holes drilled in his skull; Huang had inserted foetal cells into his brain, not his spinal cord.
In a scenario reminiscent of the scandal surrounding the Korean doctor Hwang Woo Suk, Dr. Huang has denied the allegations and called the study’s authors liars.
Dr. Bruce H. Dobkin, one of the study’s authors and the director of the Neurologic Rehabilitation and Research Program at the University of California, Los Angeles, said side effects of Dr. Huang’s surgery included meningitis, pneumonia and gastrointestinal bleeding.
“It is just nonsense,” Dobkin told the Globe. “That he would even agree to do this is really frightening to me.”
By Hilary White
