Cord Blood – Louisville, Kentucky(KY), Cord Blood Storage …

A promise to your child, peace of mind for you

The Family Link Cord Blood Storage Program lets you take steps to preserve your child's health now and in the future. While most babies are born healthy and grow up without the threat of serious illness, medical conditions can surface at any time. For a number of serious illnesses, one of the best treatments is stem cell transplants.

Every year, 17,000 people in North America require a stem cell/ bone marrow transplant for life-threatening diseases.

While most patients are able to receive transplant donations from a family member, 70 percent are unable to find a suitable match. To combat the shortage of available bone marrow donors, physicians have started using umbilical cord blood as an alternative source for stem cells. The ideal time to obtain stem cells from the umbilical cord and placenta is after delivery.

What is the Family Link Cord Blood Storage Program? The Family Link program is a private facility started in 1998 for storage of umbilical cord blood from a newborn infant. Serving families delivering within a four-hour driving distance from Metro Louisville, through Family Link a baby's stem cells can be taken from the umbilical cord and placenta at birth and preserved at ultra-low temperatures in the Blood and Marrow Transplant Service Laboratory of Norton Healthcare for up to 20 years. Because the blood cells are collected after the baby is born, the process doesn't interfere with delivery or the early intimate moments following birth. It is an entirely painless procedure for both mother and child, and state-of-the-art medical technology is used to retrieve and preserve the blood cells for future use.

Benefits of Cord Blood Storage Stem cells can be used by your baby or other members of your family for the future treatment of a variety of Diseases treatable by stem cell transplant. Major diseases and serious medical conditions, including cancers such as leukemia or lymphoma, solid tumors, sickle cell disease, rare types of anemia, and Hurler's syndrome may be treated using cord blood stem cells. If a person's blood cells have been damaged or destroyed by chemotherapy or disease, a stem cell transplant can help the body rebuild healthy blood cells.

Cord Blood Storage Helps Babies and Family Members If your child requires a bone marrow or stem cell transplant later in life, the frozen cord blood is a perfect match for your child. The frozen cord blood also may be used for members of your child's immediate family if it is a match. The chance that stem cells will be a suitable match for a child's biological brother or sister is one in four. (The odds of finding a suitable match outside the family can be thousands of times greater.)

Read more about the cost, procedure details and frequently asked questions about cord blood storage.

More Information about Family Link Cord Blood Storage

Detailed information, resources and enrollment packets are available online or call (502) 629-1234 or (888) 4-U-NORTON.

To speak with a member of the laboratory or clinical staff, call (502) 629-7771.

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Cord Blood - Louisville, Kentucky(KY), Cord Blood Storage ...