 Want to stand up and say hi? Stand up. Hi, I'm Dara. Today, we're going to talk about Sean Fair and the alternative stem cell treatment he got for his damaged right knee. Sean Fair always identified himself as an athlete. Growing up, he played soccer, lacrosse, football, and in college, he was even on the tennis team. When he was 28, he was an aspen shredding powder on the slopes. I'm sorry. I'm from Arizona. I've never skied in my life. Basically, Sean was just skiing an aspen. He hit a jump, he caught some air, and then he mistimed his landing. The shooting pain hurt his right knee so bad that he ended up having to ski down the rest of the slope on his left ski. Sean's disabling knee injury left him unable to walk and certainly incapable of living the kind of life he had before. Remember when daddy had a bad knee and I had a lying bed? Remember? No, it's not anymore. My book was on this one. My book was on that one. How old was he when that one? He was about, just a year? Yeah. I remember the only time he saw daddy was when he came in and he fed you a bottle. Yeah. He was pretty young then. It was pretty sad though that Sean couldn't see him really at all. Except because he just, I mean, he'd come in and play around him. Sean was diagnosed with OCD. Not obsessive compulsive disorder but rather osteocondritis dissequence. Sean had really damaged the articular cartilage in his right knee. Researchers aren't completely sure what causes OCD. But the condition often develops in teenagers and then later kind of presents itself in adulthood. Kind of like when you mistime a landing after you're shredding powder. Oh, sorry. Dr. Andreas Gamal, Sean's orthopedic surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital basically told me that the extent of Sean's injury was pretty bad. If you will, imagine it as, you know, a pothole in his cartilage. And actually the pothole was the size of a quarter. The size of a quarter Sean's doctor decided to try a different approach. One that he hopes will fix the problem permanently. Stem cell transplant. Okay, okay, okay. Before I move on, let's talk about stem cells. Stem cells can be thought of as undecided cells that eventually develop into more specific cells like heart cells or a liver cell. But that's based on the environmental factors that are placed on them. In Sean's case Dr. Gamal used stem cells from the umbilical cord. Although umbilical cord stem cells aren't able to become every cell in the body, the benefit of using those stem cells is that it doesn't require the destruction of an embryo. So, Dr. Gamal was able to transplant umbilical cord stem cells into the cartilage hole in Sean's right knee. Cartilage is in an environment where there is not much blood supply from the body and also has variable pressures. So, the stem cells that are in Sean's right knee differentiated into cartilage-like cells called chondrocytes. Basically, chondrocytes are cells that produce and maintain articular cartilage. As of now, Sean is thankful for his procedure. He's able to walk now. He's able to go up and down the stairs, you know, the small stuff. His right knee has healed, but it's not 100% just yet. My other knee, unfortunately, because of all the issues this one has, also needs reconstruction. We're waiting for this one to be 100% before we can tap into this one. So, yeah, my knee is definitely feel it. And even among all the physical injuries and the debilitation, Sean still says the majority of the challenge is mental, not physical. I try not to talk about it with my guys that I used to play tennis with, who are still athletic here. I try to, you know, ignorance is a bliss. I don't want to hear about you playing tennis. I know you are. It's enough to kind of get my mind wrapped around me here. I don't want to see you where I think I should be kind of a deal. So, I try to keep my mind focused and keep that outside of the blinders. Although Sean hasn't yet returned to his original athleticism, he is able to comfortably kneel down and play with his four-month-old daughter and his two-year-old son, Austin. Thank you. Okay, let's go help Mommy. I'm going to talk to them, okay? Get in your car. Austin, come here. Over here.