Three years ago, the first medicated baby was born in Spain, an adjective attributed to him for being genetically selected without an inherited disease and thus being able to save his brother.
This happened at the Virgen del Rocío University Hospital in Seville, where last Saturday a girl was born who arrived as if she were a light in the dark path of her brother's illness and maybe that's why his parents decided to name him Star.
His brother Antonio is affected by severe spinal cord aplasia, a disease that causes the disappearance of the cells responsible for the production of blood in the bone marrow, that is, a serious illness, because your body is less and less able to "make" new blood cells that replace those that no longer serve.
While Antonio was ill, health services began searching the Spanish bone marrow network (REDMO network), where unfortunately they did not find compatible donors. Antonio was getting worse, to the point that in recent months he has been needing blood transfusions almost weekly.
Estrella, the hope made life for his parents and for his older brother was born on the 11th by caesarean section, weighing 3,480 kg of weight. Umbilical cord blood, which is what will cure Antonio's disease, remains stored in the Andalusian Bank of Umbilical Cordon, waiting for the timing of the transplant to be scheduled.
The chances of transplant success are 70%, according to specialists. The parents of the little ones know it, but they hope that everything goes well, especially because what they most yearn for is that their child can start to live a normal life, like children of his age: “We are full of joy because we have our girl and because she will also help her brother”.
The Clinical Management Unit of Genetics, Reproduction and Fetal Medicine has carried out, to date, seven interventions related to embryonic selection since in 2006 the Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) was included as an offer within the services of the system of Andalusian health Of the seven cases, two have concluded successfully, the effectiveness of the procedure being close to 30%.
It is true that it is not much, considering the total cases, but at least it remains, for families, to know that everything possible has been done, including trying to have a child without the brother's disease so that, in addition to enjoy it, can heal the elder.
I don't know about you, but these cases seem great news to me at the health level because I understand how much parents can suffer when their child is seriously ill and above all because I understand what a child can suffer when he is seriously ill.
I do not want the disease to anyone, but what I do know is that no child deserves to suffer from a disease that makes him live from hospital to hospital day yes, day too. If science and technology allow us to have a mother have another baby that can cure the first, I sign up for that car, without hesitation.
I comment this because the cases of baby medication usually generate controversy, because in some sectors of the population it does not seem well seen that of genetically selecting an embryo to be born without disease and whose mission is to save a child who could be predestined not to be saved. As I say, I am not with them. I sign up for the science car if it means hope for parents and children who would catch a burning nail if they could cure a serious illness.
