In a cheery home with blood-red walls in Borivli's IC Colony, 23-year-old Ankur Nath welcomed the New Year by snacking on pizzas. Pizzas on party nights may be commonplace, but this was a special case: in the past nine years. Ankur had never eaten a single morsel through his mouth.

Some distance away to the south, Dr Hemangi Sane spent the 31st in her Dadar flat making a mental list of changes. "My shoulders are no longer droopy. I can speak clearly and for hours at a stretch. I can walk without swaying,'' the 34-year-old listed. Until August, she spoke mostly in whispers and, while walking with assistance, could only register the designs on the floor. "Now, I can hold my neck up and watch all the beautiful colours,'' she added.

What has brought about the subtle changes in Ankur and Hemangi is a dose of stem cell therapy at the civic-run Sion Hospital four months back. In Mumbai the therapy has for the past three years been bringing smiles and enhancing the quality of life for seriously ill patients.

While Ankur suffers from muscular dystrophy, a disorder in which the muscles waste away, Hemangi has motor neuron disease, which is better known as the condition that crippled British scientist Stephen Hawking. Both are terminal conditions.

Stem cells are the body's master cells with the power to transform into any cell (say heart or nerve cells, for instance) and having the ability to take on the function of any organ cell. Sion Hospital is the first public hospital in Mumbai to offer stem cell therapy. AIIMS in New Delhi offers stem cell therapy for heart patients . Over half a dozen private entities offer it as well. At present, Sion will concentrate on spinal injury patients It uses autologous stem cells (drawn from patients themselves) for treatment. It will take up brain stroke patients in the future.

Sceptics abound. A senior doctor who doesn't want to be named feels that stem cells are, at present, over-rated. "There is no known cure for progressive neurological disorders. While studies are being done across the world, none have shown any concrete results in academic sense,'' said the doctor. Another doctor alleged that the talk of stem cell therapy only resulted in patients making a beeline for private clinics that offered the same therapy. "Patients and their families are so desperate that they don't really think long-term,'' he added.

But the degree of changes in the patient's life is there for all to see. Incidentally, two former city mayors played a role in getting both Ankur and Hemangi to the Sion Hospital's stem cell therapy laboratory. While Dr Shubha Raul was instrumental in getting the hospital team led by neurosurgeon Dr Alok Sharma to evaluate Ankur, Vishaka Raut is Hemangi's aunt.

"My aunt was confident that stem cells would help me, but I was skeptical, having tried everything including cosmic therapy,'' said Dr Hemangi, who was working as an internal medicine specialist in New York when the diagnosis was made.

The first patient whom Sion Hospital treated, Ravindra Ahire, who had a bike accident in April 2007 and sustained severe spinal cord injuries, is, in fact, walking with a stick. "We have treated 76 patients with various diseases so far and most are doing much better than what they were doing before the therapy,'' said Dr Sharma, who began the stem cell treatment after years of conducting laboratory studies.

"Muscular atrophy and motor neuron disease can bring about a complete change in the patient's life. By offering them stem cell therapy, we have managed to brighten their lives to an extent. They are more independent than before,'' said Dr Sandhya Kamat, Dean of Sion Hospital.

In fact, Dr Sharma feels that Ankur's recovery "after stem cell therapy is nothing short of miraculous''. For one, Ankur was the first patient on a ventilator to be treated by the Sion team.

"While the results of stem cell therapy with spinal cord injury and multiple sclerosis patients are good, the results with motor neuron disease are not as encouraging. Yet, approximately half the patients do show a positive response. Fortunately, Dr Hemangi was one of them,'' said Dr Sharma.

Ravindra Ahire, a farm labourer's son from Malegaon, is happy he can hobble across the road with his walker. "I can manage half a kilometre," he said with glee. Fifteen months ago when TOI met him at Sion Hospital's neurosurgery ward, he was immobile.

Ahire owes his recovery from Paraplegia <http://www.thescizone.com/tag/paraplegia> to stem cell therapy <http://www.thescizone.com/tag/stem-cell-therapy>. "He can walk a bit, he has sensation in his legs and bladder," said neurosurgeon Dr Alok Sharma and neuropathologist Dr Prerna Badhe who treated him.

Ahire was the first patient to get an infusion of stem cells <http://www.thescizone.com/tag/stem-cells> - drawn from his own bone marrow - for spinal injuries in Sion Hospital. On Tuesday, the team that treated Ahire and seven others thereafter became the first in the city's public health network to boast of a stem cell center. As it is a public hospital, patients needing the therapy will get free treatment.

"This is a big achievement for healthcare. We also have a new neurosurgery center that will offer minimally invasive operations. One would expect this in the private sector but we are offering it to our patients," said Kishore Gajbhiye, additional municipal commissioner, at the inauguration ceremony on Tuesday by Mayor Shubha Raul.

"Stem cell therapy is part of a new branch called regenerative medicine in which healthy cells are used to replace damaged cells," said Dr Sharma. Indeed, after their discovery in the late '90s, stem cells emerged as a hope for millions. "Initially, there seemed to be more hype than results," stated Dr Sharma. But he feels the results are now showing, especially in countries such as China, Korea, Portugal, Germany, Australia and India.

For now, the Sion Hospital will focus solely on spinal cord <http://www.thescizone.com/tag/spinal-cord> injuries (over 0.25 million sufferers). "Seven of our eight patients (22-54 age group) had suffered spinal injuries in accidents that had occurred two weeks to eight years before the treatment. The eighth patient had TB of the spine," said Dr Badhe.

Dr Sharma said that over half of the patients had done "exceptionally well". "Patients expect miracles from stem cells and are often disappointed that they cannot get back to normal. It must be understood that in spinal injuries, even small development such as restoration of sensation in legs is big," said Dr Sharma.

The Sion center uses stem cells obtained from the patients themselves (instead of embryonic or cord blood cells). "Embryonic cells have ethical issues as well as the threat of cancer <http://www.thescizone.com/tag/cancer>. Cord blood cells are expensive to process. Stem cells from the patient's bone marrow are simple to process without side-effects," he said.