Spring 2006
Taming Tantrums........2
Help for Eating Problems.........4
Baby Walker Warning........6
Volume 12, Number 1
Meet Keith and Steven of Newville, Pa.
K
eith and Steven Martin, ages 5 and 3, are two contented, joyful little boys. It’s a sunny Tuesday morning when their father, Loran, brings them to Penn State Children’s Hospital for their regular checkups at the Stem Cell Outpatient Clinic on the seventh floor. To watch them play in the children’s playroom, just across a toy-filled lobby, you’d never know that both of them suffered from the same life-threatening genetic disease. Not so long ago, they had a delicate procedure performed to save their lives. The brothers from Newville, Pa., were born with WiskottAldrich syndrome (WAS), an immunodeficiency disorder. Normally, the immune system uses white blood cells and antibodies to attack potentially harmful substances. Immunodeficiency means that the immune system fails to protect the body. The disorder causes increased infection, more severe reactions, and delayed recovery from sickness. Those suffering from immunodeficiency are also more prone to developing cancer.
Diagnosis The road from diagnosis to recovery has been a rough one for Loran and his wife, Selesti. When the Martins’ second child and oldest son Keith was 4 weeks old, Selesti noticed a large bruise on his body as she was changing him.
Steven and Keith Martin play in the Children’s Hospital playroom. Concerned, the Martins took him to their family physician. They were told to take Keith to the local emergency department if he didn’t improve. The bruise faded, but other sicknesses such as continual ear infections, asthma, skin rashes, pneumonia, and bloody diarrhea plagued Keith. At 8 months, while Keith was in the hospital to have tubes placed in his ears, blood work revealed the source of this young baby’s ailments: WAS. Keith’s doctors immediately referred the Martins to Penn State Children’s Hospital. His doctors prescribed a stem cell transplant.
What is stem cell transplantation? In addition to immunodeficiency disorders, stem cell transplants are used to treat patients with cancer, leukemia, aplastic anemia, and disorders of hemoglobin production. “The sources of stem cells for transplant include bone marrow, umbilical cord blood, or stem cells collected from the blood,” explains Kenneth G. Lucas, M.D., director of the transplant program, Penn State Children’s Hospital. Here, stem cells are produced and mature to become red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. continued on page 2