A boy at age 3 was diagnosed with anemia. Boy's bone marrow didn't generate enough blood cells that are necessary for the body. Today he is treated with stem cells in order to restore normal generation of blood cells. Before the transplantation cord blood stem cells were prepared for transplantation. This procedure takes about 15-30 minutes. Infusion of stem cells take about 15-30 minutes as well. Overall transplantation time is about one hour. According to the doctor after stem cell transplantation boy should be return to his normal life. Video  

First cord blood stem cell transplantation was performed in 1988, France for a boy who had Fanconi anemia (genetic disorder). It was hard to find a donor for this patient, therefore doctors didn't wait and used his brother's cord blood stem cells instead. This was the first recorded cord blood stem cell transplantation in the world. Use of cord blood stem cell in medicine gave birth to cord blood banks all over the world. Today there are thousand transplantations performed yearly.

Source: Schoemans H.., Theunissen K., Maertens J. ir kt. Bone Marrow Transpl. 2006; 38: 83-93.

20 month old boy had liver transplant. After three months he was diagnosed with aplastic anemia. Both parents were doctors and luckily have stored their son's cord blood stem cells during the delivery. As no donor was found, boy received cord blood stem cell transplant in order to restore his blood forming system. Today this boy is 3 years old. Due to his liver transplantations he still is under immunosuppressive therapy, but his blood system is fully recovered.

Source: Fruchtman S.M. et al. The successful treatment of sever aplastic anemia with autologous cord blood transplantation. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 2004;10:741-742