Ten months after experimental surgery, David Landewee making great promise

Exactly 10 months after an experimental surgery that aimed to alleviate a spinal injury, Cape Girardeau native David Landewee said that he has made progress beyond his doctor's expectations.

"The progress I've had since I got back has been slow and steady," said Landewee, 42, who lives in Kansas City, Mo. "It's basically been working its way down."

In March, Landewee travelled to China, where doctors implanted into his spinal cord 4,000 olfactory ensheathing glial cells collected from fetuses aborted during the second trimester of pregnancy. Since his return in April, he has participated in biweekly physical therapy along with daily regiments at home.

Landewee's injury was considered complete, with no sensation or mobility below his fourth vertebra, as opposed to incomplete with limited sensation or mobility. Knowing that the surgery was not a cure, he said doctors told him that he could experience progress over 12 to 18 months, with improvements of two levels of motor function and four levels of sensation, which should have allowed for limited torso control in the upper rib area.

Levels of improvement

Instead, he has exhibited eight levels of improvement, regaining abilities associated with the 12th vertabra, said Landewee, who now senses when his bladder is full and is able to walk 375 feet with leg braces and a walker. He gives partial credit to the exercise and stretching regimen that he maintained over the 10 years since his injury, which did not allow for his muscles to atrophy. He credits the rest of his progress to the post-surgical exercise, "because a lot of it is 70 to 80 percent of what you put into it when you get back."

In November, he revisited China to accompany 18-year-old Christopher Schmieder, of Louisburg, Kan., who underwent the same surgery to alleviate an incomplete injury at the fourth vertebra. Landewee personally endorsed Schmieder's surgery, he said, because he exhibited the same determination to stick with the therapy.

Starting in late summer, Landewee expects to participate in a pilot program in China. Doctors will conduct six surgical procedures with 6,000 patients, Landewee said. In addition to stem-cell injections, doctors will administer hormone and antibody treatments to accelerate the regeneration of axon cells, which are insulators to nerve cells.

jmetelski@semissourian.com