A simple trip to the emergency room to treat
baby Armando
– called Trey by his family
– for congestion and wheezing quickly
turned life threatening when doctors couldn’t immediately
determine what was wrong with him.
“They ran several tests,” said Diane, Trey’s mother. “We knew something was very wrong when a
neurologist came to talk to us on the second day.”
Trey was diagnosed with severe combined
immune deficiency syndrome. His body could not provide him with
natural protection against the most common bacteria. The world
first learned of this condition when Texas Children’s Hospital
created a unique germ-free habitat and spacesuit for David Vetter,
widely known as
“David the
Bubble Boy.”
“David and children like David taught us
about the developing human immune system and its amazing potential
to protect us against infection and cancer,” said Dr. William
Shearer, chief of the
allergy and immunology service and clinic at
Texas Children’s Hospital and David’s pediatrician. “The lessons
that we have learned have had an immediate and lasting endurance
for diseases such as HIV as well as how to treat malnutrition in
developing countries.”
“I had heard about the boy in the bubble, but
I didn’t really know what it meant,” said Armando, Trey’s
father.
It was what Texas Children’s had learned from
David before his death more than 20 years ago that would save
Trey’s life.
“An early diagnosis gives us a much better
chance of reconstituting the baby’s immune systems using
experimental treatments,” said Dr. Shearer.
Trey had to have a bone marrow transplant. The first step was to find a donor within the family.
“They tested all of us and both my daughters
were perfect matches,” said Diane.
Trey’s older sister Marissa’s bone marrow
saved her brother’s life. It has been five years since his
transplant and Trey is now producing much of his own immune cells.
Gene therapy research is an ongoing process
at Texas Children’s Hospital. “We are learning how to perfect
bone marrow transplantation. We also are learning more about the
various congenital immune deficiency diseases now totaling more
than 100,” said Dr. Shearer. We didn’t understand any of that
during David’s lifetime.”
“I often wondered that if I didn’t live in Houston, would Trey
have survived,” said Diane. “They wouldn’t have figured it out
anywhere else.”