The $50,000 price tag for the trip, a good portion gathered through local fund-raisers, paid for Travis' treatments as well as airfare and food. Asked if Travis would return for more treatments, his mother said she's not over the jet lag of this trip but would consider it.

"If it's helpful to Travis, I can't see that anything would stop us," she said. The good thing about returning to the clinic is that the cost of his treatments will never rise.

"The prices go up every quarter," Missy Ashton said. "But once you've been, you are locked in at that price."

The clinic in Hangzhou is Chinese-run, but the lab is run by Americans with many American doctors and researchers on site.

She said the hospital had to open a second floor because so many people were there for the injections.

Missy Ashton thinks stem-cell treatments will be available in the United States, not in her lifetime, but perhaps for her grandchildren.

"I think that in the next 50 years or so there will be more done — more funding, more research," she said. "But it won't be available to this generation."

She said many people assume nothing is currently being done in this country.

"There's a misconception that the U.S. isn't doing anything, but they are, and President Bush is, too," she said. "It shouldn't be a political issue. It should just be common sense with some guidelines because there are ethical issues involved."

The measures of progress Travis gained from his treatments mean a lot to him and his family.

"In the rehab world, these are huge things," his mother said.

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E-mail: knelson@desnews.com