Our granddaughter, Amelia, was born with a hole in her heart.

Her pediatrician checked it every 6 months, hoping that it would heal itself.  It did not, so the pediatrician sent her to a heart specialist. It was agreed that there was indeed a hole that would involve surgery to repair by the time she was 5. As she was now 2 years old, we asked Dr. Hino if he thought she would respond to umbilical stem cells, as this was all he had available at that time.   He said he would take her on, even though she was the youngest patient he had treated up to that date. We brought her down 6 times for short mini-treatments over the next 6 months.

3 months after her final treatment, she went to her pediatric heart specialist and her 2 holes had joined into 1 larger hole.   The EKG confirmed that her hole was now 8 cm. Surgery was discussed as a very real possibility to handle a hole that size by the time she was 5. She was now 3 years old. When we relayed this information to Dr. Hino, he assured us that the stem cells can take a little time.  “Fear not!”

When Amelia turned 4, she met with the pediatric surgeon at UCLA who was going to perform the surgery.  He wanted to check her himself and do his own EKG. After testing her, he declared that her hole was now 1 cm!  He said the previous doctor did not know how to correctly run his tests as there is no way that an 8 cm hole could just close on its own!  Not possible! The hole had been too large!

You can imagine the joy in our family when we all heard the news!  When I asked my daughter what she attributed this change to, she said, “Dr. Hino!  We didn’t do anything else!”

Amelia is now 5 years old and she just returned from her annual check-up with the pediatric surgeon.   He said he can not really find the hole and that she will not need surgery in the future.

She will lead a normal life!   :-))))

Our entire family appreciates all that this passionate, hard-working doctor does daily for all of us!  He is saving lives.

Thank you again and again!

Our warmest wishes always,

Lanna Borom