I got really sucked into the idea and think its worth investing, they called it Bio-insurance. I will not elaborate but you can check/research online and I do believe stem cell is the future of medical treatment. In Malaysia we're fortunate to have 4 private Cord banking company and the fee's are much more affordable as compared over in Bangkok. The average fee's ranging from RM2000 - RM2,700 and annual fee of only RM250.
The 3 main player for blood cord banking are the below,
www.stemlife.com
www.cryocord.com.my
www.pdn.gov.my
I've met both their representative and am happy with both their presentation. Tho I've to say the first time I logged on to their website was on a sunday and since it was written 24/7, I decide to call them, Cryocord had someone answered my call and immediately had their rep called me for an appointment the next day (monday). Where else Stemlife despite calling twiced no one picked up the call, the next day I called them up and someone finally answered the call and promised to have a rep calling me which she did after a month.
I did some research and found other company or someone attacking stemlife furiously on the net http://stemlie.wordpress.com/ten-reasons-why-you-should-not-use-stemlie/ when I read the blog at first I've made up my mind not to bank with them couple with my personal passed telephone lousy experience convinced me more.
Somehow a girl called me 3 nights ago and said she was from stemlife, I was sarcastic to her for the 1 month delay but still I gave her and my baby a chance to let her do the presentation. Prior to meeting her I had made up my mind to bank with the other company.
After her presentation, somehow she manage to convince me. And I signed up the next 2 days. I will reason out a brief comparison here on why I choose Stemlife instead of the other.
1. Bag or Vial, I choosed bag
Stemlife promote bag and cryocord promote vial
Sound logical at first when you can break vial into 5 vial/bottle and use them as when you need them. But on further research 5 vial is hardly enough to cover a transplant for an adult. Furthermore vial are open system and carries a risk for contamination.
You can take 1 single vial for cell expansion/cloning without spoiling the whole batch, but bag system has a small ready cut portion for you to do exactly that.
Bag are cheaper and safer for the long run, Btw both company offer both system for storage.
2. Does it work?
I've asked the first company if they've record of actual thawing a sample and safe any life?
Her answer was yes, but its P&C and details cannot be reveal. Am I supposed to follow blessed is he who believe but have not seen?
Stemlife however had a few cases published in newspaper, which to me is the most important factor as this is the sole reason I'm willing to spend money on something that had indeed work exactly to what we wanted if on the unfortunate event calls for it.
3. Will they exist after 20 years?
Well this is the million dollar question, but I'll choose the bigger company right now and hope for the best.
4. Transplant cost
A stem cell transplant which I was told would cost RM120,ooo!!! in private hospital and around RM60,000 in government hospital. Stemlife offer a RM100,000 cash, transplant cost courtesy from the company which is very important to us as we're not millionaires. Where else the other company offer us to buy insurance to cover the cost. The problem with buying insurance is you can only claim once, as I would be buying a life insurance for my baby, if the cost exceed the amount I'll have to find other means to top up. With Stemlife the Rm100k would be a life saver and additional cost wold be bear by our insurance.
These are the 4 most important criteria that made up my mind, about the poison blog, well I'm not sure how true the claims were and furthermore it could be made by a fired and emotionally filled ex-employee or by some competitor bad mouthing. So I think I'll take it as a pinched of salt at the moment.
The most troubling thing in my mind right now is both the representative fail to inform me that malaysia do have our public cord blood banking which I will call them next monday and find out more. Both the representative told me Malaysia do not have a public cord blood banking!
11.30am 30 Mac 2009
I've just called pusat darah negara, apparently they do have public cord banking, but the collection is strictly if you give birth at KL General Hospital. So out of the question for me.
