Stories by Tony Bartelme

Miracle or Mirage Desperate patients from America are flying to China for stem cells, their last hope for living normal lives — or staying alive at all. But can stem cells really cure the incurable? This is the story of Hal Burrows, a partially paralyzed man from Charleston, and his search for a miracle. BY TONY BARTELME Chapter 1: The Patient SHENZHEN, CHINA — The stem cells are late. They were supposed to be here a half hour ago, fresh from the lab, 10 million for Hal's spine, and Hal's waiting. Hal Burrows has been waiting for 20 years, really, ever since that afternoon on his racing bicycle when everything changed, since the doctors said he would never walk again, since those gray days two years ago when he was getting weaker and had all but given up hope. Where are the stem cells? Hal passes the time by telling jokes to anyone in earshot, poking fun at the nurses, who don't understand English and look at him with tired faces. Hal talks about cameras, ...

The road to China Charleston man pursues medical miracle on other side of world SERIES : THE CHINA EFFECT - STEM CELLS Miracle or mirage? By Tony Bartelme Source: ALL Sunday,May 27, 2007 Edition: FINAL, Section: NATION, Page A1 Linked Objects: SHENZHEN, CHINA — Mid-summer in the smoggy south China coast is humid and blistering hot, like Charleston. The area also is prone to tropical storms, and Hal Burrows arrives just before a typhoon hits. Hal is here to have stem cells injected into his back. He hopes they'll travel up his spinal cord and rebuild nerves damaged in a bicycle accident 20 years ago. Now, 12 time zones from his home in Charleston, with rain and winds lashing the window in his room on the 14th floor of Nanshan Hospital, Hal wonders what he has gotten himself into. But the winds die down soon enough, and from his window, Hal sees the city return to normal. Hal has blue eyes, reddish hair and a goatee, which give his f...

Reality check Hal Burrows has seen amazing results from his first stem cell injections — and so have other patients. Will his hopes for a miracle cure be realized? SERIES : THE CHINA EFFECT - STEM CELLS Miracle or mirage? By Tony Bartelme Monday,May 28, 2007 SHENZHEN, CHINA — The Australian journalists pile into Hal Burrows' hospital room and set up the camera. They're doing a documentary for National Geographic called "Supercells." Hal squirms in his wheelchair, primed to tell his story. OK, they say, we're recording. Hal warms up by talking about how he injured his back in a bike accident 20 years before, and how it left him with very little motion in his arms and legs. He says he barely could make a fist with his left hand before coming to China, and explains how doctors here injected stem cells into his spine. Then he holds out that bum left hand — and flexes it over and over. "Pretty amazing,...

Seeing What's Important By Tony Bartelme Saturday, May 6, 2006 Arnold O'Neal is going blind. Right now, inside his eyes, cells are falling apart way too fast, clogging blood vessels that feed the photoreceptors, those tiny detectors on his retina that let him see the light on his wife's face. He figures he has a few years left before everything goes black. * * * When will we untie the dock lines? Arnold, 41, and Bobbi Jo, 36, couldn't seem to leave. Sure, they were committed to their plan — traveling for a year while Arnold still had some sight. They had bought a pokey 36-foot Gulfstar powerboat and named it Imagine. They had sold a car and held three yard sales to help pay for their voyage. They had become masters of eBay. But it was Arnold, the perfectionist, who kept delaying their departure. What about the hurricanes? What about the barnacles on the hull? Comfort can generate its own gravity, and Arnold and Bobbi Jo sometimes felt weighed do...

Here is the first part of a 10-chapter story about the construction of the new Cooper River bridge in Charleston, the largest cable-stayed bridge in North America. This award-winning story was adapted and released in a new book "The Bridge Builders: And Charleston's Grand New Span," which is available on Amazon.com SPECIAL REPORT: THE BRIDGE BUILDERS By Tony Bartelme And Jessica Vanegeren Sunday, March 20, 2005 They came from all over to work here, to build an iron and concrete stage in the sky, to build a grand bridge. They rolled in from Maine and Texas and Kentucky, towing campers behind their trucks. They flew in from France and Sweden and Canada with blueprints and PowerPoints and a fondness for espresso. They drove in from Moncks Corner and Santee and Goose Creek with new work gloves and steel-toed boots. They came for the money, mainly, and the challenge, and when they weren't on the job, who knows? Maybe drink a few beers, chase a few women, bre...

Here is the untold story about Yaser Hamdi, the subject of a landmark Supreme Court case. Born in Louisiana, captured in Afghanistan, jailed in Hanahan Yaser Hamdi travels long, strange road By TONY BARTELME Sunday, March 7, 2004 Edition: FINAL, Section: SECTION A, Page A1 Late November 2001. The war in Afghanistan is at full throttle, and 100 or so Taliban fighters huddle in freezing, pitch-dark catacombs under an old fortress near Mazar-i-Sharif. Outside, troops from the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance are doing their best to kill the Taliban holdouts. They drop grenades down air ducts and fire rockets into a passageway. The Taliban stay below, some scared they'll be shot if they surrender, others vowing to fight to the death. Over the next six days, Northern Alliance troops fire rockets and pour burning fuel into the cellars. Finally, they divert an ice-cold stream into the complex, flooding it waist-high and creating a foul stew of fuel, corpses and human waste....