Medical History Made in Camden
A South Carolina toddler made history this week in the Delaware Valley. A breakthrough treatment may stop the disease that is destroying her brain. The day before her second birthday, Lana Swancey is the youngest patient ever to receive groundbreaking gene therapy to treat her brain.
The therapy is being used to stop the debilitating and deadly Canavan's disease. The disease has robbed Lana of her development, leaving her like a 3-month-old infant.
The procedure is now being done in just one place in the world -- Cooper University Hospital in Camden, N.J.
"We are so thankful to be here. We've waited along time, and we just know that everything's going to be OK. We have people praying from here to South Carolina to across the sea," said Michelle Swancey, Lana's mother.
Tiny catheters were threaded into Lana's brain and deliver the genetic material to the cells. Now, her doctors will watch over the next month for signs that Lana will start to develop skills of a regular toddler.
"Developmental milestones (are) reaching, feeding herself, standing up, changes neurologically. We will see changes first in the MRI," said Dr. Paula Leone is a neuroscientist at Cooper University Hospital.
"I think the greatest risk for the next several hours is that she'll develop some bleeding. I don't think (that will happen). It looks very good at this stage," said Dr. Michael Feeley, chief neurosurgeon at Cooper University Hospital.
Canavan's disease is most common among Ashkenazi Jewish people, but the gene is also common in other Middle Eastern groups and is found in the general population.
In order for a child to get the disease, both parents must carry the gene. A test is available to see if you carry the gene.
Free testing for Canavan's and Tay Sachs will take place this Sunday from noon until 2 p.m. at the Kaiserman Jewish Community Center on City Avenue at Haverford in Philadelphia.
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