NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – A 23-year-old New Orleans man became the first person in Louisiana to be functionally cured of sickle cell disease through gene therapy.
Daniel Cressy underwent the procedure at Manning Family Children’s Hospital. The disease is no longer active in his system.
Cressy said his dream of becoming a pilot was almost taken away from him because of the blood disorder. He said it was a two-year journey under the procedure, and he wants to pay that forward with his own nonprofit to help other people going through sickle cell treatment.
A difficult journey
“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 said…