CordLife: Our Option on Grabbing the One Chance, One Choice

Kurt once told me that his older sister who lives in Taiwan paid a large sum of money just to preserve the cord blood of her first born. During that time, I didn't quite understand what it was all about. When I heard that CordLife Philippines would be having a sort of forum over the matter, I signed up because I was eager to learn. Allow me to summarize what I learned about cord blood banking during the talk by the doctor and during the open forum.

10 Things You Need to Learn About Cord Blood Banking

Cord blood banking involves the process of storing stem cells which have the ability to develop into new and healthy red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets.
There are two types of cord blood banking available. One is public cord blood banking and the other is private cord blood banking. In public cord blood banking, everything is maintained by the government but you have to purchase the cord blood if you need it. While, in the private cord blood banking, you pay for the storage fee.
Cord blood banking is said to be a one chance and one choice because you can only extract it during the time when the baby's umbilical cord has been clamped and cut.
Cord blood banking is safe for both the mother and the child and it only lasts for a few seconds.
During the twenty-three years that cord blood banking was discovered, it has been proven to diseases including cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma, neuroblastoma, blood disorders such as thalassaemia as well as immune deficiencies and metabolic disorders. Since it is still young, there are still studying more diseases where it can be applied.
Cord blood banking can benefit the child the most. But, it also has 60% more chance of matching the other members of the family than bone marrow.
Cord blood banking involves freezing the storing the cord blood in a liquid nitrogen tank at -196°C permanently.
The freezing can be done for an unlimited period of time.
Cord blood banking is made available by CordLife Philippines and the cord blood bank is located at UP-AyalaLand TechnoHub Diliman, Q.C.
Stem cell transplants in the Philippines are performed at National Kidney and Transplant Institute, St. Luke’s Medical Center and Asian Hospital and Medical Center.

Akiko Thompson

My thoughts on Cord Blood Banking

Listening to CordLife Philippines and to Akiko Thompson and Lexi Schulze share about how pleased they were with CordLife Philippines gave me a good impression. Lexi told us that she availed of it because she her family had a history of cancer and leukemia.

Lexi Schulze

While listening, I suddenly remembered our friend who died from leukemia at the age of fifteen. We used to be jealous of that guy. He was an only son of a well-off family. He studied at Xavier School. Back then, he had the latest gaming consoles like the Playstation 2 and the PSP. Even in online games, he had the money to spend for the powerful items. One day, we were all surprised that he was hospitalized because he had leukemia. We didn't think it was serious because when we visited him, we saw him playing the PSP. Three days after we visited him at around 1 a.m., Kurt got a call from our his dad that he already passed away. I was shocked. Kurt told me that the reason why his parents got him everything is because they already knew about the Leukemia but they couldn't do anything. They couldn't find a bone marrow match for him.

Perhaps, if CordLife Philippines existed during our friend's birth, his parents would have availed of it. Money can be earned back but our friend's life is forever gone. So in that case, I think cord blood banking would have helped. What they are offering is a one chance and one choice. It's an opportunity to save life when the need arises. But, I don't think that CordLife Philippines is advisable for everyone. It depends on the medical history of the family. If your family is clean from those diseases, then I don't think it is needed. However, if you do have those diseases within your lineage, then what is the sum of 48,000 php down payment plus 8,000 php annual fee in exchange of the possibility of losing a loved one right? If you think that that large sum is pretty heavy, CordLife Philippines even offers payment schemes that involves deferring the payments.

Lastly, I think the main question every probable consumer like you and me would have lingering in our minds is whether CordLife Philippines is capable of sustaining their operations indefinitely, as needed. CordLife Philippines is a subsidiary of CordLife group of companies (CordLife Limited) which is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX:CBB). The group owns and operates cord blood processing and tissue storage facilities situated in Indonesia, India, and the Philippines.

In case you want to know more you can visit www.cordlife.com/ph or call 710-9195 or email info@ph.cordlife.com