Katie Trebing today is a healthy, vibrant little girl. That was always the case. Katie was born with Diamond Blackfan Anemia. The disease robs a body's ability to make red blood cells. Red blood cells are created in bone marrow, so the disease is considered a bone-marrow failure syndrome. Red blood cells carry oxygen from the lungs through the body. Katie’s family chose to use PGD testing to mamimize the likelihood their next child would be an HLA match. This would enable a bone marrow transplant from the sibling and a cure for Katie.
Her story was highlighted in a full week News Day feature as well as on Primetime Live with Elizabeth Vargas.
When Utah Jazz basketball legend Carlos Boozer and his wife Ce Ce had their second pregnancy, they too turned to PGD testing to cure their first child, Carmani, of a severe case of sickle cell anemia. The twins that were born were able to save Carmani who was declared cured of sickle cell anemia less than a year after the lifesaving cord blood transfusion and have completed the Boozer family in a way Carlos and Ce Ce had only dared to dream about.
Wendy and Chris Baker learned they were both carriers of the Tay-Sachs gene. Unfortunately, since they didn’t ever have any symptoms as carriers, they did not learn they were both carriers until their baby son Ben was diagnosed with the deadly disease. Their elder daughter Caroline was tested as well. Thankfully she did not have Tay-Sachs. When Ben was 3 ½, he died of the disease.
The Bakers wanted a sibling for Caroline, but couldn’t risk losing another child to Tay-Sachs. They turned to PGD to dramatically reduce the possibility.
