Ethan Radtke lies on his back on the living room floor and proudly crosses his legs. With a little prompting, he spreads them apart and pulls his knees up toward his chest.
"Oh, that's so awesome. Gimme five!" says Tressica Hasbargen, his occupational therapist.
The exercises may not seem that impressive to a stranger. But for this 5-year-old West Fargo boy, every new leg movement is a milestone.
Since receiving stem cell treatment for cerebral palsy two months ago in Germany, Ethan's stiff, spastic leg muscles have loosened significantly, allowing him to bend and flex his legs in ways he couldn't before.
His mother, Lisa Radtke, watches with a smile as Ethan sits in a kitchen chair, his legs apart and dangling below him, and tosses a ball into a bucket.
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"For him to sit lik that before would have never happened," she says. "His legs were clasped together."
Hasbargen's eyes light up when Ethan bends a leg far enough to reach his shoe to take it off - another task not possible prior to the treatment.
"His tone has really improved," she says.
Asked how his legs feel now, Ethan musters up a shy "good" and pulls up on his right shin, which moves with ease.
He's able to keep his legs spread apart for long periods of time, which has allowed him to wear Pull-Ups - important for a kid who just started kindergarten, his mom says.
He also walks on his knees more easily, and his mouth and tongue muscles are more relaxed, giving him better speech control.
However, his muscles' new pliability has its drawbacks. The loss of muscle tone means he can't go as far with his walker, and his muscles are short and tight from years of tension. He's unable to stand and must use a wheelchair.
On Sept. 24, a surgeon at Sanford Children's Hospital in Sioux Falls, S.D., will attempt to lengthen his Achilles tendons to get his feet flat on the ground and back into braces. After that, he'll be in casts for four to six weeks.
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"But you've got to have the negative with the positive," his mother said. "It's been a good thing."
It'll take surgery and a lot of physical therapy, but Ethan's parents hope he'll someday walk with crutches. They've promised him a trip to Disney World when he does, turning his twin sister, Ashlee, and older brother, Connor, into his cheerleaders.
The stem cell treatment Ethan received at the Xcell-Center in Dusseldorf, Germany, isn't available in the United States. Doctors extracted stem cells from his bone marrow and re-injected them into his spinal fluid, hoping they would replace dead cells and repair damaged cells in his brain.
Lisa and James Radtke raised $20,000 from the community for the surgery, and Lisa Radtke says she continues to receive feedback on Ethan's story. She says a family from Detroit Lakes, Minn., is taking their son with multiple sclerosis to Germany for the treatment, which the Xcell-Center claims has resulted in improvements for half of MS patients and two-thirds of cerebral palsy patients.
"I would do it again in a heartbeat," Lisa Radtke says.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Mike Nowatzki at (701) 241-5528
