So we are already on our 2nd trimester, and thinking about banking our child's cord cells upon birth. Since I am a doctor, cord cells is not a new concept for me. In fact, I was surprised that we can do it already here in the Philippines... And I guess that's where my doubt lies.
Let me tell you why we are interested in getting Cordlife.
1. Family history
We have a family history of cancer on my side of the family. That is enough of a risk factor for me.
2. Elderly primigravid
I am already almost 35 years old by the time I give birth, so that is already at risk for trisomies and other malformations.
3. Radiation and chemicals today
As compared to previous generation of raising children, a lot of women my age are having a hard time conceiving, and I believe that there is an increase in the congenital malformations. I think it's due to the radiation of technology today, and the chemicals that we eat everywhere! From canned goods to instant food, to even the pork, beef, chicken, and fish that are fed with chemicals and antibiotics to grow bigger and faster! I really think the likelihood of cancer will increase.
4. Cord Shield
Aside from banking our baby's stem cord, I am also aware that there isn't much health insurance that covers maternity (as far as I know, only Maxicare... and maybe Intellicare? Based on the patients that got admitted on the hospital that I work at). Even SSS doesn't cover maternity benefits if you applied for it too late.
With Cordlife, there is some sort of insurance in case there is fetal and maternal death and complications. Though as of now, there are only 7 types of maternal complications that they cover, which includes pre-eclampsia, DIC, postpartum hemorrhage, abruptio placentae, and fetal death. In the event that the baby also has congenital malformation like Down syndrome, diaphragmatic hernia, common heart defects (ASD, VSD), cerebral palsy, and hydrocephalus, they are also covered.
5. Cord Blood Network
They also offer to extend the use of cord blood to our baby's sibling, ourselves (the parents), and the grandparents.
This is an advantage, yes, but there seemed to be a lot of hang ups with this one (I will explain everything later, which is one of the reasons why we are still hesitant about it.)
Reasons Why We Are Still Hesitant:
1. Insufficient Quantity
The contract states that for the cord blood to be valid, they only require 15 mL... which is in international standards is very limited. (But the blood bag, according to the agent holds up to 250 mL).
Because of this other blog, I learned that even Cordlife themselves admit that their own units are limited to less than 40 kg patients... Meaning not adults. Heck, today, some children 12 years old and above are already more than 40 kg!
So... I was thinking maybe we could increase the quantity to at least 40 or 50 mL collection, before we can consider it sufficient quantity? I have to talk to my OB about it, because she is the one to collect the blood.
If the collection is insufficient or no blood was collected, Cordlife will give us a full refund.
2. Application in the Philippines
Just about... how many cases of umbilical cord transplant are there in the Philippines? Apparently, 3 have already been released. One of which is in Davao, Cerebral Palsy, where a team of doctors, including a doctor from Singapore Cordlife and a doctor from Manila, came to Davao to do the transfusion for the patient, and she improved.
So... am I safe to assume that the doctor will be provided by Cordlife in any hospital in the Philippines? Or if not... how do I know which doctor is "accredited" by Cordlife?
Either way, up to what part will Cordlife cover the cost of the actual procedure? According to their Cordlife Transplant Care Guarantee, they will give SGD 50,000 if the baby is the one that needs the procedure. So... does that cover everything already? But if it's not the baby herself, I assume that we will be the one to shoulder the procedure and the hospital bills... which will roughly cost millions?
But... what if the baby needs a transplant, but it's not her cord blood (it's not autogenic), but an allogenic transplant? So does that mean, Cordlife Transplant Care is not applicable anymore?
3. Cordlife Pledge
If my baby needs an autologous transplant, and we later found that the blood is not viable, Cordlife will find a suitable match OR SGD 50,000 lump payout.
But the question is... so if they found a match, are we going to pay for the unit, which the agent says costs millions? But since we're clients of Cordlife, they will sell it to us with a huge discount. This is what Jeff thinks, so we have to ask them about it.
So, we are going to UP Technohub tomorrow to check their lab (might as well), and talk again with our agent Edward to clarify our questions.
Let me tell you why we are interested in getting Cordlife.
1. Family history
We have a family history of cancer on my side of the family. That is enough of a risk factor for me.
2. Elderly primigravid
I am already almost 35 years old by the time I give birth, so that is already at risk for trisomies and other malformations.
3. Radiation and chemicals today
As compared to previous generation of raising children, a lot of women my age are having a hard time conceiving, and I believe that there is an increase in the congenital malformations. I think it's due to the radiation of technology today, and the chemicals that we eat everywhere! From canned goods to instant food, to even the pork, beef, chicken, and fish that are fed with chemicals and antibiotics to grow bigger and faster! I really think the likelihood of cancer will increase.
4. Cord Shield
Aside from banking our baby's stem cord, I am also aware that there isn't much health insurance that covers maternity (as far as I know, only Maxicare... and maybe Intellicare? Based on the patients that got admitted on the hospital that I work at). Even SSS doesn't cover maternity benefits if you applied for it too late.
With Cordlife, there is some sort of insurance in case there is fetal and maternal death and complications. Though as of now, there are only 7 types of maternal complications that they cover, which includes pre-eclampsia, DIC, postpartum hemorrhage, abruptio placentae, and fetal death. In the event that the baby also has congenital malformation like Down syndrome, diaphragmatic hernia, common heart defects (ASD, VSD), cerebral palsy, and hydrocephalus, they are also covered.
5. Cord Blood Network
They also offer to extend the use of cord blood to our baby's sibling, ourselves (the parents), and the grandparents.
This is an advantage, yes, but there seemed to be a lot of hang ups with this one (I will explain everything later, which is one of the reasons why we are still hesitant about it.)
Reasons Why We Are Still Hesitant:
1. Insufficient Quantity
The contract states that for the cord blood to be valid, they only require 15 mL... which is in international standards is very limited. (But the blood bag, according to the agent holds up to 250 mL).
Because of this other blog, I learned that even Cordlife themselves admit that their own units are limited to less than 40 kg patients... Meaning not adults. Heck, today, some children 12 years old and above are already more than 40 kg!
So... I was thinking maybe we could increase the quantity to at least 40 or 50 mL collection, before we can consider it sufficient quantity? I have to talk to my OB about it, because she is the one to collect the blood.
If the collection is insufficient or no blood was collected, Cordlife will give us a full refund.
2. Application in the Philippines
Just about... how many cases of umbilical cord transplant are there in the Philippines? Apparently, 3 have already been released. One of which is in Davao, Cerebral Palsy, where a team of doctors, including a doctor from Singapore Cordlife and a doctor from Manila, came to Davao to do the transfusion for the patient, and she improved.
So... am I safe to assume that the doctor will be provided by Cordlife in any hospital in the Philippines? Or if not... how do I know which doctor is "accredited" by Cordlife?
Either way, up to what part will Cordlife cover the cost of the actual procedure? According to their Cordlife Transplant Care Guarantee, they will give SGD 50,000 if the baby is the one that needs the procedure. So... does that cover everything already? But if it's not the baby herself, I assume that we will be the one to shoulder the procedure and the hospital bills... which will roughly cost millions?
But... what if the baby needs a transplant, but it's not her cord blood (it's not autogenic), but an allogenic transplant? So does that mean, Cordlife Transplant Care is not applicable anymore?
3. Cordlife Pledge
If my baby needs an autologous transplant, and we later found that the blood is not viable, Cordlife will find a suitable match OR SGD 50,000 lump payout.
But the question is... so if they found a match, are we going to pay for the unit, which the agent says costs millions? But since we're clients of Cordlife, they will sell it to us with a huge discount. This is what Jeff thinks, so we have to ask them about it.
So, we are going to UP Technohub tomorrow to check their lab (might as well), and talk again with our agent Edward to clarify our questions.
Here is the price list given to me by our agent last March in case you are interested:
They have 3 different payment schemes, which is Classical (only pay upfront, then you have to pay the annual fee very year), Premium (pay upfront and advance for 10 years), and Prestige (pay the whole upfront up to the 18 years).
Of the three, we think we will go for Premium payment scheme because:
1. I think the most crucial in the child's life is the first 10 years. This is where most childhood leukemia is diagnosed... As well as the other diseases listed treatable by umbilical cord blooding, like palsy and autism.
2. IF the theory on cord blood only works for patients less than 40 kg, then it probably won't cover until 18 years of the baby's life.
3. The Classical Plan doesn't have Cord Shield, which is the insurance part during pregnancy.
UPDATE:
We just got back from our site visit from UP Technohub. Princess was the one who explained to us the technical side of the processing of the samples, from the pre-processing to the storage to the withdrawal and use (as far as she knew).
So to answer our previous concerns:
1. Based from her experience, there are patients who is able to get more than 1M TNC from just 15 mL, so it's not necessarily insufficient quantity.
After their processing, they are going to tell the parents if the count is less than 1M TNC. If it's less than that, we have the option for a partial refund (we only pay the 35k). In the case that we want to store it, we sign a waiver.
IF in the future, we need the sample and our transplant doctor deems it insufficient, we have the option of doing a STEM CELL Expansion to increase the number of cells. Unfortunately, this is done in Singapore and there's going to be a fee, which they don't know yet because it hasn't been done. But at least our question was answered.
2. Princess told us that in case we need the blood, our transplant doctor (whoever and where ever we might be) will coordinate with Cordlife's Medical Director. Cordlife will provide a team consisting of the Philippine Cordlife Medical Director and even the Singapore Cordlife Medical Director, which will be shouldered by Cordlife. The Philippine Cordlife Medical Doctor is a pathologist who is also part of the Stem Cell Division in St. Luke's and teaches pathology in PGH and other medical schools.
So they will be the one to assist the parents how to go about it. If the baby is the patient, lucky for them, processing, matching will be done by Cordlife, and they will also give a SGD 50,000 to cover the transplant. In case, another relative will be the patient, processing, matching, and hospitalization will be shouldered by the client.
3. Cordlife Pledge
Yes, we have to pay for the unit but since we're Cordlife clients they're going to give a HUGE discount. (A unit of cordlife costs 5M, according to the agent? Not really sure because it hasn't really been done in the Philippines yet.)
Here's an interesting thought that I learned today. In case that we decided to terminate our contract with Cordlife, we can decide to discard the unit (which is a waste), or sell the sample. I didn't know we could do that! But in the Philippines, since we only have private cord blood banking, there is an option to sell our cord blood to other family who might need it.
Basically, a lot of questions remained unanswered because Cordlife is sooo new here in the Philippines, that there only has been 3 cases where it was used. So... they are also not sure about our other questions because they haven't experienced it first-hand.
So... OUR VERDICT: Yes
