Family Travels Abroad for Stem Cell Help

In the world of special needs parenting, Lori Hansard is what they call "a warrior mom." Those who've witnessed her devotion know there are none more fierce.

When they said Hansard's son might never sit-up on his own, she said no and found cutting edge physical therapy that helped. When a school stigmatized her boy by surrounding him with emergency cones, she spoke out in his defense.

"Why would you do this to my child?," she said on FOX 26 in May.

"I've never seen an individual dedicate their life to an individual to try and make them better more so than my wife," insists Murray Hansard, Lori's husband.

"I just know it can be better," Lori says of the ongoing struggle to help her son Hunter heal.

Earlier this year the battle for "better" took Lori and Hunter across the Mexican border.

"It was a big leap of faith," she says.

It was there the 11-year-old, badly brain injured at birth, received an intravenous dose of stem cells derived from human umbilical cords.

"The stem cells traveled through his body and they found a place to live," explains Lori.

Two tiny vials containing 3 million cells cost the family $12,000 scrimped and gifted dollars. It was a medical gamble made in a foreign land.

"It's not available here. I haven't a choice. I have to take him to these places," says Lori of the therapy still prohibited in the United States.

The risk appears to be paying off in a big way.

In October, Hunter took his first tentative step.

"Every cell in my body knew he could do it," says Lori with a grin of satisfaction and gratitude.

The Hansard's say each week since, Hunter's gotten a little stronger. For them it's proof enough that stem cells can repair terrible damage.

"All this time I've been saying Hunter is doing better, Hunter is getting better, look what Hunter can do and people would go 'oh that's good' and I could tell they weren't convinced. This time they are coming up to me and they are saying, 'oh my gosh look at him, look at what he's doing'."

The Hansards are now raising money to take Hunter to China where he can receive ten times the number of human cells he was given in Mexico for about the same cost.

-- Learn More About Hunter: http://gohuntergo.com/gohuntergo/index.htm
-- See Hunter's First Steps: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQeSS9BoNRc