Twenty-three-year-old Daniel Cressy already wants to pay it forward after experiencing a medical breakthrough in Louisiana.
In 2023, the New Orleans native was among the more than 1,400 people in Louisiana hospitalized that year for sickle cell disease, a genetic disorder that distorts red blood cells into a crescent or “sickle” shape, as AFROTECH™ previously reported. This can make it challenging for blood to flow through the body and causes discomfort for the individual.
Cressy underwent gene therapy at Manning Family Children’s Hospital to cure the disease, which he was born with. The therapy modifies a patient’s own stem cells to prevent the red blood cells from mutating, and the cells are returned to the patient. If successful, this can cure the disease.
“His cells, once they’re changed, effectively become the drug,” said Dr. Zachary LeBlanc, a pediatric hematologist and oncologist at Manning Family Children’s, according to NOLA.com. Cressy’s own body is creating “a cure,” he noted at the time.
Cressy was the first person in Louisiana to receive gene therapy, a treatment that costs millions, the outlet reported.
“You’re still probably only talking about in the history of the planet, 150 maybe 200 people now that have ever done this,” LeBlanc said. “The vast majority of them have been in the last two or three years.”
Cressy no longer has sickle cell disease, meaning a two-year journey has now come to a successful end, FOX 8 WVUE-TV reports.
Cressy told the outlet he is grateful and wants to help others receiving sickle cell treatment. He even co-founded a nonprofit called Privileged Pilots. He has aspired to become a commercial airline pilot since he was 19. He took a discovery flight in 2022, started flight lessons, and had hoped to secure a first-class medical certificate, per a description on the nonprofit’s website. He was rejected.
That moment is what led him to seek treatment for the disease since he didn’t meet FAA medical safety standards by having the disorder, according to a blog post from Manning Family Children’s.
“This entire journey was the hardest thing I’ve been in my life, and the reason why I worked so hard with our organization, Privileged Pilots, is because I don’t want anybody else to have to experience the loneliness and the uncertainty and the hopelessness that I felt a couple of years ago,” Cressy told FOX 8 WVUE-TV.
“Someone’s ability to access treatment and potentially cure should not be defined by their zip code,” he added. “People in Louisiana deserve the same opportunity as people anywhere else in this country. The people living with sickle cell disease are here. They are neighbors, our friends, our families.”
