Stem Cells May Be Her Only Hope

For Ex-Racecar Driver's Daughter, Battle Is Personal

(CBS)  Stem cell research has been one of the most controversial issues facing Congress since President Bush imposed limits on its financing in 2001.

That's because embryonic stem cells come from frozen embryos, the result of in vitro fertilizations, and not everyone agrees on what should be done with them when couples don't want them.

Should these frozen embryos be thrown away? Adopted? Or given to science?

On Friday, in a break with Mr. Bush, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) announced he would support a bill expanding federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.

The battle is one in which Cody Unser has a critical, personal interest and an active part.

The teenage daughter of retired star racecar driver Al Unser Jr., a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner, was in sixth grade when she collapsed at school. Doctors at the hospital thought it was the flu and sent her home.

It turned out to be much more than that, reports Hattie Kauffman on The Early Show Monday in the first of a two-part series, "Two Faces of Hope."

"In 20 minutes, my legs were paralyzed. I had no idea what was going on," Cody says.

Now 18, Cody was 12 years old, playing basketball, when a blinding headache left her breathless.

"When I woke up the next morning, my legs couldn't move. And I couldn't go to the bathroom. And so it just kind of snowballed from there," she recalls.

Cody was diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder, transverse myelitis. Her own immune system attacked her spinal cord. She would likely never walk again.