Second “Medicine Baby” Born in Spain

She is only two days old, but Estrella can save the life of her brother Antonio. Estrella was born at the Virgen del Rocío Hospital in Seville and she is the second “medicine baby” born in Spain.

Antonio is five years old and suffers from severe aplastic anemia, a blood disease that causes the disappearance of cells responsible for blood production in the bone marrow.

The doctors froze Estrella’s umbilical cord after she was born, to extract her stem cells to try to save Antonio’s life.

The first case of “medicine baby” was known in 2008 when Javier was born at the same hospital and saved his brother’s life with a transplant of umbilical cord blood.

(MS)