The Hino Medical Centre has been one of the biggest blessings in my life. In June 2020, I was in an accident that left me paralyzed from the waist down: a spinal-cord injury that had damaged about 80% or more of my spinal cord. I was told that I’d be wheelchair-bound for life, with a five-percent chance of getting any function back in my legs, if I were to at all… I made a little bit of progress in the immediate months that followed, but it was not enough. I was still in a wheelchair and incapable of standing on my own, even with the assistance of a walker. My physical therapists called a meeting with me and my family to let us know that because of the lack of progress in my recovery they will have to drastically lower my hours with them, so as to give their time to others who could benefit more – in the eyes of my PTs, I had stalled out on regaining any new sensory or motor function in my legs.
As you can imagine, this was a big blow to morale. However, my parents and I were determined to stop at nothing to get my legs back. So, in late January 2021, my mother and I headed for Hino Medical Centre to pursue what would be my first 10-day treatment of pluripotent stem cells.
By day three or four of the 10-day treatment we already began to see massive improvements. My quadriceps, which were not firing on either leg, had now neurologically returned – meaning, I had (and still have) the ability to voluntarily engage the muscles of my front thighs. This was HUGE, because now I could stand on my own with the assistance of a walker! Not only that, but I was now able to walk with the walker. The first independent steps I EVER took out of my wheelchair were in our hotel room of the Coral y Marina there in Ensenada, midway through my stem cell treatments. It was miraculous. My mom and I were almost in disbelief. Tears streamed from our eyes. Now, I was able to do what my PTs in the USA were trying to have me do for months: walk with a walker by myself. And it is all thanks to those stem cells repairing the neurological damage in my body. Not only that, but at the time I was also on intermittent urinary catheters. After the spinal-cord injury, I lost my bladder control. I had gained a tiny bit of it back, but still not enough to void the contents of my bladder on my own. However, during that first trip to HMC, this too was rectified. My bladder function improved ten-fold, and the VERY LAST catheter I ever used was in that hotel room as well. These were two of the biggest takeaways from my first visit to Dr. Hino. I now saw light at the end of the tunnel – I was no longer going to be a paraplegic.
Since that first trip, I have gone back a handful of times, and each time there have been major improvements in my recovery. Going back next on a walker, then to crutches, then to a cane, and now no assisted device at all, Hino Medical Centre (along with the hard work that I put in) has made my recovery the marvelous success story that it is today. Side note: I never told my PTs in the USA that I was going to Mexico for stem cell therapy. I just said I was going on holiday. Even they noticed the major improvements every time after visiting HMC, so much so that one of them said to me: “You know Connor, it’s like every time you go on holiday you see some sort of wizard that improves your recovery tremendously, because you keep coming back with such new levels of function and sensation in your legs.” And that wizard is Dr. Michael Hino.
Meet Connor May
From Wheelchair to Mountains:
A Stem Cell Recovery StoryAnd boy aren’t we so glad we did…