14 - Feature
Breathing for Ethan MSD mourns the loss of sophomore Ethan Lalinde; Lalinde passes away from complications related to cystic fibrosis
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n Feb. 9, friends, family members and Marjory Stoneman Douglas teachers and students alike united in mourning the death of sophomore Ethan Lalinde, who passed away from cystic fibrosis. The night of his passing, Lalinde’s classmates, loved ones and those who wished to honor him met in front of MSD with a candle at 7 p.m. From there, all in attendance led Lalinde’s family to their home and set the candles in his driveway. While the devastating passing of Lalinde continues to affect our community months later, he created an undeniable awareness for the lifethreatening disease that is cystic fibrosis, which over 1,000 new people are diagnosed with each year and 70,000 people are already living with. According to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, cystic fibrosis, otherwise known as CF, is a life-threatening genetic disease which causes persistent lung infections and thus, progressively limits the sufferer’s ability to breathe. The illness is characterized by the airway of the lungs being gradually clogged over time with a thick, sticky mucus. Essentially, the person diagnosed with CF will either slowly suffocate when their lungs prove incapable of providing enough oxygen for the person’s body, or their immune system will end up crashing due to alternative, though nonetheless related infections. The disorder primarily affects the lungs, but concurrently can later come to affect additional organs, such as the sufferer’s pancreas, liver, kidneys and intestine. “My friend always talks about her aunt Cheryl, who passed away from cystic fibrosis when she was only 30 years old,”
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junior Matt Feldman said. “While she was diagnosed when she was 18, she had it her whole life and was constantly sick. She was able to get a double-lung transplant when she was 27, but because she had been suffering from the disease for so long she ultimately died from kidney failure.” Extensive medical research shows that the mutation most commonly responsible for the chronic, incurable illness in mutation ΔF508. The defective gene that causes cystic fibrosis contains an abnormality, which is also known as a mutation. While there are over 1,800 known mutations of cystic fibrosis, mutation ΔF508, a deletion of three nucleotides that results in a loss of the amino acid phenylalanine, accounts for 70 percent of cystic fibrosis cases worldwide and an overwhelming 90 percent of cases in the United States. Because cystic fibrosis is classified as a recessive genetic disease, those who have the disease must have inherited two copies of the defective CF gene, one from each of their parents. When a child only contains one copy of the cystic fibrosis gene, they will not have CF, though they will be classified as a carrier of the disease, which means they are capable of passing it onto their future children. When two carriers of the disease decide to have a child, there is a 25 percent chance that the child will have cystic fibrosis, a 50 percent chance that the child will be a carrier, but will not have the disease and finally a 25 percent chance that the child will neither be a carrier of the disease nor have cystic fibrosis. Cystic fibrosis, which is considered one of the most common chronic lung
Gone, But Never Forgotten
Friends of Ethan share their memories on Instagram @Humans of MSD
diseases in children and young adults, affects almost one out of every 3,000 newborn child in the world. Even more surprisingly, about one in every 25 people is a carrier of the disease, meaning that they contain only one copy of the cystic fibrosis gene, and they may not even know it. When this disease hit close to home this past February with the passing of Lalinde, there was an undeniable sense of awareness spread about the devastating disease and the effects it may have on people who have it. “I knew very little about cystic fibrosis before I met Ethan,” sophomore Katarina Pincever said. “As heartbreaking as it was to see him suffering with the disease, it made me want to do something to help people that are diagnosed with cystic fibrosis in the future. Ethan would’ve wanted to create awareness about his disease, which I believe he has.” Since his passing, the MSD community has come together to raise money and create awareness of CF. A Cold Stone fundraiser in Lalinde’s honor raised money for CF research; $2,315 was raised in Lalinde’s name for the Great Strides Walk in Boca Raton. An additional walk to raise money is in the planning stages. Despite the advancements in the treatment and awareness of the disease that has occurred over time, in 2006, the average life expectancy of a cystic fibrosis patient was 37.5 years. However, ever-growing advancements in medical science establishes hope in cystic fibrosis patients and their families that there is a possibility for a cure in the near future for those like Lalinde who suffer from this disease. Story by Alexa Kravitz
“The hardest part was seeing Ethan in the hospital. He didn’t want to be there and didn’t want the way for him to go to be in the hospital and it wasn’t, but every time they would tell him that his condition was only worsening...he was heartbroken, not because of the impending possibility of him dying, but because he wouldn’t be able to see the world and go on adventures with the people he loved.”
