Extreme Scientific Measures Taken To Save One Child Fails, by Barbara Gibbs
There’s heart breaking news to report about the birth of a baby conceived to save his brother’s life. He is not perfect bone marrow match for his 5-year-old brother Henry.
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Harper Moore is one of only a few so-called “designer babies” ever born. Cutting edge medical science almost guaranteed Harper would be a perfect bone marrow match to his older brother Henry – a very sick Duke patient. But apparently, medical science failed.
When Harper Grey Moore came into this world, everyone called him not just any miracle baby, his father called him a special blessing.
“This is a day we’ve prayed for 5-years.”
It took two tries to have Harper, but one week after his birth at Duke, the Moore’s receive more heart breaking news from Dr. Joanne Kurtzburg, who could perform Henry’s transplant. Harper is not a match.
Dr. Kurtzburg says there’s still hope. “I feel good about Henry. He’s in good shape, healthy, young enough, has a good donor… take action, now and not to wait 5 or 10 years to see what will happen – cause I think he would have complications that would make the transplant fail.”
Finding out Harper wasn’t a match was just as devastating as the day they found out Henry was sick.
Henry’s father, Patrick said, “Yesterday was the hardest day of my life.”
His wife, Angela added, “It’s horrible. It’s terrible. You want everything to be great and work out, and it might. Our lives may be normal in a year. Our path may be different than we were taking.”
No one knows for sure why it didn’t work – besides the failure rate is less than 1%. Doctors say when one cell from an embryo has its DNA broken down and amplified, it’s such a small sample that mistakes can be made. Even if a match is found, sometimes the wrong embryo can be implanted.
Patrick says the entire process has been an emotional rollercoaster.
“Until I came home and held Harper, I was able to say you know what… we’re still incredibly fortunate. We have this beautiful, healthy baby we prayed for. We feel God has another plan for us. We’ll never give up our fight to save Henry.” Because saving Henry, saves them all.
Duke doctors have located unrelated cord blood for Henry. While it’s not perfect, it’s still a very good match. The Moore’s are considering good ahead with the transplant this summer.
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