Senior says stem-cell treatment saved him from certain death

Almost 18 months ago, John Homeier - a star basketball player at Feitshans High School in the 1950s and a congestive heart-failure patient since the late 1990s - was on his deathbed.

"I couldn't walk 20 feet," said Homeier, 71, whose heart problem was diagnosed 10 years ago in connection with a congenital heart-valve defect. "If I would not have had any help, I would have been dead in 90 days."