First Man Cured of Sickle Cell Disease!
Daniel Cressy had wanted to be a commercial airline pilot his entire life, and for most of that life, sickle cell disease stood between him and his dream. The Federal Aviation Administration requires strict medical standards for commercial pilots, and sickle cell disease, with its unpredictable pain crises, organ damage, and cardiovascular complications, made Cressy ineligible. In 2023, he appealed to the FAA anyway, asking whether there was any path forward. The answer he received changed everything: if he could cure his sickle cell disease, either through a bone marrow transplant or through gene therapy, the FAA would reconsider his application. Gene editing therapies had just received federal approval for clinical use, and Manning Family Children's Hospital in New Orleans had been granted permission to perform the procedure. Cressy enrolled. On June 22nd, after more than two years of treatment, he rang the bell at Manning Family Children's Hospital and became the first person in Louisiana, and the first in the entire Gulf South, to be functionally cured of sickle cell disease through gene therapy.
The treatment uses the patient's own stem cells, extracts them from the body over three days, edits out the gene mutation that causes red blood cells to sickle and block blood flow, and reinfuses the corrected cells back into the body. The drug alone costs $2.2 million, and Cressy had to wait months for Louisiana's Medicaid program to approve the expense before the process could begin. He described the entire journey as the hardest thing he had ever been through in his life. Cressy joins more than 100 patients across the country who have been functionally cured using the two federally approved therapies, Casgevy and Lyfgenia, and Louisiana has more cases of sickle cell disease per capita than any other state in the US, meaning his story carries particular weight for the community around him. Five more Louisiana patients are currently undergoing treatment at Manning Family Children's. Cressy said he plans to launch a nonprofit to support others going through sickle cell treatment, and the runway to his pilot's license, the one that once seemed permanently closed, is now finally coming into view.
