Back in my Louboutins...thanks to a stem cell jab in the foot: Experimental treatment that fixed socialite Hofit Golan's broken leg

  • Hofit Golan broke her tibia and foot in a nightclub accident in 2011
  • She had a year of sticking to conventional treatment with limited success
  • So took controversial holistic therapy at the Villa Medica clinic in Germany
  • One of the few centres in the world to offer Fresh Cell Therapy
  • It is a controversial technique that uses injection of embryonic stem cells from animals 

For any woman who adores wearing heels, Hofit Golan, the Israeli-born socialite who has graced countless red carpets from Cannes to New York, offers a cautionary tale.

Bizarre as it may sound, the 33-year-old’s partying came to an abrupt halt after an accident in a nightclub involving her stilettos.

And Hofit’s recovery is just as remarkable. After a year of sticking to conventional treatment with only limited success, it took a controversial holistic therapy to see her back on track – and in heels again.

Hofit Golan broke her tibia in three places and suffered a broken foot when a man landed on her in a nightclub

Hofit Golan broke her tibia in three places and suffered a broken foot when a man landed on her in a nightclub

Hofit, wearing her customary designer clothes and Louboutin shoes, was enjoying a night out at risque London club The Box in November 2011 when an admirer tapped her on the shoulder. Hofit turned awkwardly and the man suddenly lost his footing, sending them both crashing to the floor. ‘It was pretty horrendous,’ recalls Hofit. ‘All I remember was having most of his weight on my knee and hearing something tear. I knew immediately I was in serious trouble.’

She was rushed to University College Hospital where it was revealed she had broken her tibia in three places, suffered a broken foot and torn ligaments in her arm.

She spent the next three months with her leg in a cast. ‘I was in a wheelchair at first, and then on crutches with a moon boot. It wasn’t a great Christmas,’ Hofit recalls.

In fact, 2012 wasn’t great either. Despite physiotherapy, Hofit’s foot would not heal completely.

‘The bone was out of alignment and I was experiencing shoulder and neck pain,’ she says.

With her right foot still swollen, the socialite had to buy her favourite Louboutins in the next size up. ‘Shoes have always been an expensive habit, but I didn’t expect to have to buy second pairs,’ she laughs.

It was only when she visited little-known clinic Villa Medica that her health improved rapidly 

It was only when she visited little-known clinic Villa Medica that her health improved rapidly 

It was only when she visited a little-known clinic in Germany that spring that Hofit’s health improved rapidly. Villa Medica is one of the few centres in the world to offer Fresh Cell Therapy (FCT), a controversial technique that uses injections of embryonic stem cells from animals. The clinic claims success with diseases such as Parkinson’s.

While human stem cells have been used in conventional treatments such as bone marrow transplants since the 1960s, the use of animal cells is unregulated. There is no scientific evidence to prove they are either safe or effective.

Sam Oussedik, consultant orthopaedic surgeon at University College Hospital London, says: ‘The length of time it takes for a serious fracture to heal depends on many factors but you are looking at three to four months rather than weeks.

‘Treatments using anything other than human stem cells have no scientific evidence of working. It is difficult to say what may make a subject feel better. If I were to inject 100 patients with water, 50 would say they felt better afterwards.’

However, Hofit says the £15,000 FCT treatment enabled her to make a full recovery. On the first day she was given blood tests, then a bespoke vitamin drip for an hour alongside oxygen therapy. The next day she was given a series of FCT injections in her lower back, right foot and affected joints.

One side effect was extreme tiredness and she says she slept afterwards for ‘a day and a half.’

When she awoke, Hofit conducted her own test – involving her old shoes. ‘They were the same Louboutins I wore on the night of the accident. I kept them on for two days without any pain or swelling to my right foot or leg – that’s when I knew the treatment had worked.’

A year on she remains pain-free and has resumed her party lifestyle. Has any doubt crept in the treatment might be harmful? ‘Never,’ she says. ‘It felt an instinctive way for the body to heal and the results I’ve had are proof of how well FCT works.’