Despite lack of support from Health Canada and medical establishment Donna Farrell feels better

Donna Farrell feels better after Zamboni treatments (photo Eastern Graphic)

A Peters Road woman traveled to Poland to get the controversial treatment for MS and says she feels better. The trip and treatment cost her more than $9,000 but she doesn’t regret it.

The MS Society, Health Canada and Health PEI did not support her operation.

“I just know I feel great. I’m a lot happier.”  Mrs Farrell told the Eastern Graphic

Donna Farrell contracted MS in 1997 and the disease made her fatigued, often in pain and created a walking disability.

She now feels energized a month after the treatment, walks without a cane and has less pain. She is taking physiotherapy to make her leg muscles and tendons more flexible after years of little use.

“I could feel the blood pumping through my body,” Mrs Farrell said about the operation’s effects.

“Donna just got her life back,” said her husband Ricky Farrell.

There were no guarantees given to her of permanent success or a cure but that hasn’t dissuaded her.

“I’m taking it as it comes day by day. The way I look at it right now, I’m happy. Even if I only had a year, that’s a year. I’d go back (for another operation).”

Blocked veins

Dr. Paolo Zamboni, who developed the MS treatment, discovered that MS patients had more iron in their brains than people without the disease. From further research he concluded the iron buildup was caused by restricted veins which didn’t allow blood flowing into the brain to drain quickly, thereby leaving iron deposits. The more restricted veins, the greater the amount of iron, Zamboni concluded, and the more severe the MS progressed in the patient.

While he theorized why the veins were smaller, Zamboni and his team spent most of their time trying to relieve the problem. Being a vascular surgeon, he applied his knowledge to develop an version of angioplasty for the the azygos vein which flushes blood from the central part of the brain.

Zamboni and his team completed 3 years of clinical trials in November 2009 and concluded that the balloon treatment of the azygos vein was successful in remission of the effects of MS. That study include 65 patients.

Dr. Robert Zivadinov at the University of Buffalo did a similar study with 16 patients and published in January 2010. He concluded that the angioplasty was a successful treatment for early and mid-stage MS.

Neither study proposed the treatment was a cure for MS. They did suggest the treatment would stop the progression of MS.  CTV has an excellent article on the studies and treatment with a video at The Liberation Treatment: A whole new approach to MS.

Medical controversy

The news of any successful treatment of MS had the media and MS patients abuzz. There currently is no known way to stop MS from disabling it’s victims. It progresses at differing rates with each person but the overall effect is the same: they become disabled and eventually lose their ability to walk. It is a painful condition that on average reduces life expectancy by 5 to 10 years.

MS sufferers were hopeful. The MS Society and Health Canada were skeptical. Officially the MS Society will not endorse the Zamboni treatment and is calling for more clinical trials. The MS Society backed Health Canada’s position not to endorse the treatment, which resulted in a firestorm of protest from MS patients. Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador have stated their support for the Zamboni treatment. All other Canadian provinces are sitting on the sidelines.

Mrs. Farrell told the Eastern Graphic “For years I went to every MS walk. But I’d rather raise money for this instead.”

The backlash against the go-slow approach of the MS Society is an open revolt against their conservatism. People want relief from their symptoms and time is not on their side. The angioplasty is not said to reverse MS only stop its progression.

On September 10th, 2010 the MS Society made a slightly more conciliatory statement.

The MS Society of Canada is eager to participate in the preliminary work for a top quality pan-Canadian therapeutic clinical trial to test CCSVI. We share the interest that thousands of Canadians have expressed in the potential of CCSVI.  Our eagerness is already reflected in our joint funding with the National MS Society (U.S.) of seven clinical diagnostic studies at a combined total of $2.4 million.
The MS Society is committed to doing all that it can to ensure that an eventual trial, if proven feasible based on the best available scientific evidence, will be rigorously designed and implemented to obtain the conclusive answers that we all seek.

We will continue to accelerate the research process so that definitive answers to the theory of CCSVI can be available at the earliest possible time. I look forward to the MS Society playing an important role in the preparations for a therapeutic trial of CCSVI and, if feasible, for its implementation.

I also want to reaffirm that the role of the MS Society is one of guidance and its responsibility is to provide credible, timely and accurate information. We recognize that the decision to seek any kind of treatment is personal and we respect these decisions. We recognize and celebrate that people have experienced benefits from the CCSVI procedure.

Picture and quotes from the Eastern Graphic.