StemCell Therapy

She credits an experimental stem cell treatment with giving her new hope for her health and her future -- a newfound hope that also caught attention of Republican Rep. Pete Olson.

"She is the face of the 21st Century Cures Act because of what she's gone through in her life," he said Tuesday.

"It became pretty clear to me that ... I (have) got to tell her story," he said. "That's why she's here: She's awesome."

Immediately after the House vote, Hughes said, Olson called her at home to invite her to be his guest of honor.

"I still cannot believe I will be in the same room as our President and lawmakers," she said before attending Trump's speech.

It took Crowley's father, John, to launch the New Jersey biotechnology company Amicus Therapeutics to identify a drug treatment that would save her life, Trump said.

"If we slash the restraints, not just at the FDA but across our Government, then we will be blessed with far more miracles like Megan," he said. "In fact, our children will grow up in a Nation of miracles."

Hughes spent most of her adolescence hospitalized, as she became so sick that she could barely walk and suffered immense pain. Her body was evaluated, treated and studied at the National Institutes of Health in collaboration with her doctors from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

Yet relief came in 2014, when Hughes received a high-dose adult stem cell treatment that was not approved in the United States.

For the procedure, Hughes had her own healthy stem cells cultured at the FDA-registered biotechnology company Celltex Therapeutics in Houston. Then she traveled to Cancun, Mexico, to have the cells infused back into her body.

Each infusion involved about 200 million stem cells, and Hughes received some 22 infusions over almost two years. The cells could help normalize her immune system, which was overactive due to her autoimmune disease.

Before the stem cell therapy, Hughes said, she was taking 23 medications a day. Now, she is on eight medications at lower doses.

"If not for the help of high-dose autologous mesenchymal stem cell therapy, I would not be here today," Hughes said at the hearing.

"I was running out of time, but I was willing to put my life at risk to get on an airplane. My quality of life had become so dismal, even one small improvement from my own stem cells would have been enough for me," she said in her speech. "What happened in the days, weeks and years following my first infusion has changed my outlook. It's hard to believe, in my sick body, I had a wealth of healthy adult stem cells with the ability to so significantly improve my quality of life."

"My hope is that our new President will spend time looking at how to help all Americans have access to new therapies like the one I had," she said.

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Stem cell treatment changed the life of one guest at Trump's speech - CNN

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