“I hope that someday when I see an older person having trouble with their leg(s), faced with the same problem I had, they have this revolutionary therapy available for them because of the chance I took as a clinical trial patient.”

Jacque Pentell

It wasn’t so long ago that Jacque Pentell was told by her doctor that she was out of options for saving her leg. She initially was found to have a blocked artery in her foot, leading her down a very painful path with progressive development of disease in the arteries of one of her legs (peripheral arterial disease). Her doctor broke the news to her that she would have to have her leg amputated.

As most people would, she sought out and researched alternatives and found out through a contact about a visionary adult stem cell clinical trial being conducted at the Indiana University School of Medicine. The purpose of the clinical trial was to utilize a patient’s own stem cells to save limbs from amputation.

The results of participating in the trial make Jacque happy each day: her leg has been saved. Today, Jacque has 65% less pain that before participating in the clinical trial. Before the surgery, the blood pressure in the big toe of her leg that was to be amputated was in the single-digit range, barely measurable. After the surgery, the blood pressure of that same toe has risen to between 63 and 65 millimeters of mercury, about 10 times what it was before stem cell therapy.

Jacque would encourage her family and friends, indeed anyone, to seek out treatment and exploratory therapies when there seem to be no other options. She hopes that the chance she took participating in this adult stem cell clinical trial will benefit others in the future as she has benefited. She is a big advocate of adult stem cell research and would like to thank everyone who helped her during the clinical trial process. Because of them, she can continue to lead a happy, active life.