DELTA, Ohio — Jeff and Jill Albring are fighting for their son’s life and hoping an experimental stem-cell treatment, which will be administered in Russia, will deliver the miracle they have been waiting for the last 10 years.
Nathaniel was 2 on June 2, 2005, when he went missing. Mrs. Albring searched everywhere around their Delta home, which is in a rural-wooded area — out by the barn, then by the road.
“Then part of me thought I should I check the pool because we have a gate up here, but he was able to figure out the latch,” she said.
The family has no idea how long Nathaniel, now 12, was in the water. But by the time he was found, he was unconscious. Despite the odds, he made it through the first night at Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center, but he has never fully returned to complete consciousness, she said.
“His eyes were open. He just wasn’t responsive to anything,” Mrs. Albring said.
His condition is called anoxic encephalopathy, or brain damage resulting from lack of oxygen, Mr. Albring said. It is described as “alive but unconscious” by Dr. David Howe, a California physician who is working with the family to take Nathaniel to Russia for a treatment they believe is their last hope of getting their son back.
The family is trying to raise $50,000 to travel to the Medical Diagnostic Center Olympus in Moscow on July 20.
“This is all we have left. There’s nothing left to try,” Mrs. Albring said.
Her son cannot walk or talk. The family must do everything for him. “His extremities, he can’t use them voluntarily. He has a feeding tube,” Mr. Albring said.
The Albrings have done everything they can to make Nathaniel’s life as comfortable as possible. He has received therapy in Chicago, and they communicate with other families who have near-drowned children, seeking out any medication or treatments available, Mrs. Albring said.
Over the years, however, the Albrings have heard of families with near-drowned children who traveled abroad to get stem-cell treatments, because many stem-cell treatments have not been approved for use in the United States. But those families saw limited success, Mrs. Albring said.
After Mr. Albring read a story in The Blade in early March about how a new stem-cell regimen helped hockey legend Gordie Howe after he suffered a massive stroke, he wondered if this type of treatment could help someone like Nathaniel with a traumatic brain injury.
Mr. Albring is an IT analyst for ProMedica Physicians Cardiology; he took a chance and reached out to Dr. Murray Howe, a radiologist who works for ProMedica and is the son of Gordie Howe.
The hockey great’s son said his father is still living in Texas and doing well after traveling to Mexico for experimental stem-cell treatment about six months ago.
“His stroke symptoms are still completely gone, but he still has the challenges of being 87 and he still has dementia,” Dr. Howe said.
Dr. Howe connected the Albring family with the California physician who had traveled with his father to Mexico to oversee his treatment.
Dr. David Howe, who is not related to the hockey great’s family, said he was moved by Nathaniel’s story and decided to work with the family to get him to Russia.
California physician
Dr. David Howe is one of just a few physicians in the United States who have participated in stem-cell clinical trials in other countries. He was introduced to stem cells about 10 years ago by a famous Russian neurologist, Dr. Nikolay Mironov. Russian physicians have been researching and treating patients with stem cells for more than 40 years, Dr. Howe said.
In 2005, Dr. Howe founded Stemedica, a global biopharmaceutical company, after his sister-in-law had an accident that left her paralyzed. His two brothers now run the company that manufactures and supplies stem cells to clinics in Indonesia and Kazakhstan.
Dr. Howe said he left the company to focus on the clinical work surrounding stem cells with other physicians in Russia. They are trying to hone in on conditions or diseases that respond best to stem cells, he said.
Nathaniel will be the first child treated with stem cells at the Russian hospital who is suffering from anoxic encephalopathy, Mr. Albring said.
Dr. Howe said Nathaniel’s situation is unique in that he has been in his current state of unconsciousness for many years. Children also are not allowed in most clinical trials.
“He is part of my personal clinical study,” the California physician said.
As a parent of five, Dr. David Howe said Nathaniel’s case spoke to his heart.
“I decided to treat Nathaniel, first and foremost, because of the persistence of Nathaniel’s father who wanted a chance for his son. The whole family has dedicated their lives to Nathaniel and want the opportunity to see their boy have a chance at regaining consciousness and obtaining a life where he could communicate and enjoy the love of family,” he said.
Dr. Howe added that he was also encouraged when he examined tests sent by the family. “It showed he does have some brain activity,” he said.
He has told the family, however, there are no guarantees the treatment will work.
“They’ve never treated anyone like Nathaniel, so they don’t know,” Mrs. Albring said.
A difficult journey
Mrs. Albring said that although she is hopeful, she is overwhelmed by the thought of how they will pay for the expensive procedure and how she and her husband will handle the logistics of a 12 to 14-hour flight. They have raised more than $15,000 toward their goal of $50,000.
“This child can’t walk. He can’t do anything for himself, and we have to go through two airports and major cities, you know,” she said.
When Nathaniel arrives at the hospital in Moscow on July 21, he will receive a very similar treatment that Gordie Howe received in Mexico in December, Mr. Albring said.
The treatment will be overseen by Dr. David Howe and administered by the medical team of Dr. Ilya Mironov. The first day, he will receive what is called a lumbar puncture, where stem cells are injected in the spinal fluid of his lower back. On the second day at the clinic, he will receive an IV infusion of a different type of adult stem-cell treatment, Mr. Albring said.
“We may also give him muscle stem cells because his muscles have been sitting there for 10 years and they haven’t been used,” Dr. Howe said.
Mrs. Albring said she feels confident the stem-cell treatment is safe. Afterward, she is hopeful her son will have more cognition and will be able to respond to her, his three brothers, and her husband.
Although it is impossible to predict how Nathaniel will respond, Dr. Howe said if he does wake up, he will likely require years of physical therapy.
“His muscles haven’t worked in 10 years,” Dr. Howe said.
Mr. Albring said the family is ready to do whatever is necessary to help Nathaniel.
“Sometimes miracles happen and sometimes you have to make them happen. As parents you have to fight for your kids and not give up even when others have given up,” he said.
Stem-cell prospects
Many stem-cell treatments have not been approved for use in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration partly because the clinical trial process is longer and more cautious in this country than in some other countries, said Dr. Paula Grisanti, chairman of the National Stem Cell Foundation based in Louisville.
Each new drug or therapy must go through a phase one, phase two, and phase three trials, which can take several years and, depending on the drug, can cost millions of dollars.
Between 4,000 and 5,000 clinical trials dealing with different stem-cell drugs listed on the FDA website, clinicaltrials.gov, are in varying stages of completion in the United States and Europe, she said.
Dr. David Howe said he understands the frustration that many people have with the slow pace of the approval process in the United States.
“I literally have had patients die while we are waiting on approval from the FDA,” he said.
He is an advocate for speeding up the approval process for what he calls “no option patients” and encouraging more companies to get into the business of producing high-quality adult stem cells.
“A possible upside to this is that if this works and Nathaniel has a positive response, this will give hope for scores of patients and children who are in an unconscious state,” Dr. Howe said.
Contact Marlene Harris-Taylor at mtaylor@theblade.com or 419-724-6091.
First Published June 7, 2015, 4:00 a.m.
