Today she is a disability advocate and battling the Indian Railways to ensure that all railway stations across the country are made disabled-friendly. Wheelchair-bound Virali Modi was bed-ridden for four years until she underwent a stem cell therapy conducted by Dr Alok Sharma. Modi's story began in 2006 after a visit to Mumbai and she returned to the US and developed fever followed by hallucinations. Even doctors could not detect her ailment. "My condition worsened soon after I first admitted to a hospital. I suffered a cardiac arrest and was declared dead before I revived after 7 minutes. Later, I went into coma and was again declared clinically dead. My haemoglobin level fell below 3 and body temperature was at 90-degree Fahrenheit," said Modi. She said the doctors decided to remove her life support but her parents begged them to let them celebrate her birthday on September 29. "Seventy people stood near my bed on my birthday. My dad held my hands and held me cut a cake, I opened my eyes to everyone's surprise," said Modi recalling those days. While Modi eventually came out of the coma, she was left bedridden for four years. "I could not move or do anything on my own. I tried everything, Ayurveda, homoeopathy. My parents took me from the US to India but nothing worked until I met Dr Alok Sharma and heard about stem cell therapy," said Modi. She has, since 2010, underwent stem cell therapy thrice and can now sit upright and walk with support. But most of the time she is in a wheelchair and is confident that at some point she will walk again. Modi has since her recovery dedicated herself to ensuring that disabled people have better facilities, particularly at railway stations. She began the effort after her own train travels where she realised that railway stations and trains were not disabled friendly. Thanks to her efforts, Modi recently was asked to inaugurate a project in Ernakulam in Kerala where six stations have been made disabled friendly including disabled friendly washrooms. Speaking about the stem cell therapy, Dr Sharma, professor and head of neurosurgery at LTM Medical College in Sion Mumbai said the therapy holds promise not just in patients like Modi but even those who suffer from autism, muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, head injury etc. He said stem cells can be harvested from the umbilical cord, embryonic stem cell etc but bone marrow of a patient remains safest because the body won't reject it. HOW DOES THE PROCESS WORK

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