The Gordie Howe Protocol

June 4, 2015

(New York Magazine) – But around Thanksgiving, as he began refusing to do his physical therapy — “We had never seen him quit anything,” Mark said — the family received a call from Dave McGuigan, the marketing chief at Stemedica, a stem-cell manufacturer in San Diego. McGuigan had once worked for the Red Wings and told the Howes about an experimental treatment Stemedica thought could save their father: the injection of up to 100 million neural stem cells into his spinal column, in the hope that they would migrate to his brain and help his body repair itself. Howe could improve within 24 hours, Stemedica said, and receive the treatment anytime — just not in the United States.