RAMBO > Became STEM CELL RAMBO

All went fine until one fateful day when Rambo was three and a half months old, Anu, took Rambo to a routine walk on their street. Rambo does not like wearing the leash and always tries to break loose. It is quite a difficult task to hold him back and the family members took extra precautions while taking Rambo for a walk. But that fateful day in the split of a second when Anu didn’t look, Rambo broke loose and ran into the street and it was when hell broke loose.

An auto rickshaw which was speeding down the street hit Rambo, pushing the poor helpless little pup down a corner. Rambo was yelping in pain hit due to the bleeding wound on its  hind limbs and was bleeding excessively. It was a pathetic sight to the passersby who stopped to help the pup. Anu was in uncontrollable tears and words would not come out of her mouth when her family on hearing sounds came down to see what had happened. The whole family was terribly shocked and they rushed Rambo to the Tamilnadu Animal and Veterinary University (TANUVAS) where the Doctors gave immediate attention to the wounded Rambo and took him inside the operating room for the emergency treatment.

Alas, they were able to save the pup but Rambo was permanently disabled and could not walk due to an injury in its spinal cord. This was a devastating news to the family who could not bear the fact that Rambo could not walk, run or play with them hereafter. They could not eat or sleep properly thinking of their Dog lying in the hospital, which would usually come running wagging its tail when they entered the house  .They could not see its pain and being a devout family they prayed to all Gods for they believed in  a miracle for their dog.

And …God answered to their prayers. The miracle came in the form of Stem cell Therapy.The doctors at TANUVAS along with Nichi In Centre for Regenerative medicine (NCRM) gave hope to Rambo’s owners that Stem Cell therapy could bring Rambo to normalcy and could make him walk. They said though stem cell therapy was not tried before on any dog and Rambo was an ideal candidate and they could give it a try. The family immediately accepted as they would go to any depths to bring it back on foot.

So with the consent of the owners the doctors at TANUVAS aspirated bone marrow from Rambo under anesthesia, sent to NCRM’s lab for isolation of the Stem cells and after the Stem cells were expanded and sent back to TANUVAS for injection and the doctors gave two injections of the Bone Marrow Stem cells to Rambo which were implanted at the site of injury with scaffolds that were specially developed in Japan and processed by NCRM.

Rambo was taken back by the owners to their house after the surgery. The months which followed the surgery was full of anticipation to the owners who were waiting for Rambo to stand up and walk. The daughters were particularly anxious and they took care of Rambo as if it were a baby. They feeded it gave its medications at proper time and carried it to answer its nature call and would not scold it if it peed on their expensive mattresses or couches. The sisters took turn to sleep with Rambo as Rambo would sleep only if they held him close as the small pup was terribly frightened after the traumatic experience.

Days and months rolled on and Rambo continued to grow up. The whole family was waiting for the Day when Rambo would stand up. They kept on praying God with full faith and then one day Rambo stood up .The family could not forget the joy it gave them to see Rambo standing up. They truly believed it was a miracle.

Slowly Rambo started walking a few steps and when we a team from NCRM with Dr.Justin and Dr.Pushkin went to visit Rambo, a nine month old puppy now, it came rushing to the door to greet us not greet though..It was able to walk a short distance and then started dragging around with its legs. But the family and Doctors were happy to see the improvement .Rambo became close with us and I could see tears of joy in the members of the family. They said nowadays Rambo loves them ever than before and I could see its love as it growled at me when I went near one of the

sisters to whisper something in her ear thinking that I might hurt its beloved owner. The family narrated funny things about Rambo as to how they tried a lot of ways to make Rambo eat the medicines by hiding it in a sweet and giving it but Rambo would eat away the sweet and spit the tablet down. They fondly call him “Rowdy Rambo”

In the few hours we stayed with the Dog we were mesmerized by its magnificent beauty and looking into his eyes gave us a sense of warmth and genuine love which Dog lovers could comprehend. Rambo accompanied us till the lift when we were leaving. I could understand the faithful heart of this doggie and could understand the reason behind the Owner’s unending love for such a wonderful Dog.

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