Hospitals ban staff from storing stem cells

THE three public maternity hospitals in Dublin have formally signed off on an agreement preventing staff from helping parents store stem cells from babies after birth.

The policy, followed informally at the Rotunda, the National Maternity Hospital and Coombe Hospital up to now, means parents wishing to store stem cells for possible future use in tackling diseases such as leukaemia must conduct the procedure themselves, or get an independent midwife to help them.

A total of 54 families have had stem cells taken from the birth of their child and sent to labs abroad for storage in the past four years.

The British company Smart Cells, formerly known as CryoCare, said that 40% of parents who had carried out the procedure were from the Republic.

The scheme costs an initial €300 and €1,850 in total and allows families to store stem cells for 25 years in a laboratory.

Mr Michael Geary, the Master at the Rotunda Hospital, said the common policy was being signed because “there isn’t any good evidence to support this practice” unless it was for a specific clinical need or at the request of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service.

“I’m unaware of any evidence to support this use in the prophylactic preventative setting,” he said. “But we will always be happy to respond to the clinical requests from the IBTS or where there is a clear cut problem with a family relative or whatever,” he said.

In a process known as cryopreservation, the stem cells are removed from the umbilical cord after the delivery of the baby, via a needle, into a blood bag which is collected by a courier. It must be stored within 72 hours and is cooled to the temperature of liquid nitrogen.

The cells could then be used to create new bone marrow in future to help battle conditions such as leukaemia and heart disease, according to the company.

A spokesperson for Smart Cells said yesterday that interest in the procedure was growing in Ireland, but that some hospitals had ruled that maternity staff could not carry out the procedure for fear of litigation.

Dr Geary said this was not the case, adding: “We try to practice evidence-based policies and it has nothing to do with litigation.”

The company said it had offered training for maternity staff in Irish hospitals but the offer had not been taken up so far.

She added that parents wishing to use the scheme had to sign an agreement effectively ruling out the possibility of carrying out legal action in the event of the stem cell becoming damaged. In such cases the parents only lose the initial €300, for which the parents receive a kit bag featuring information, a plastic canister, a blood bag, a syringe and a clamp.

In 2003, Wexford woman Rosie Sullivan had her baby’s stem cells frozen when he was born and said it offered “reassurance” for the future.

“I suppose it’s like a life assurance policy, that hopefully I will never have to call on, but with the reassurance that it’s there if I need it,” she said at the time.