Three years after undergoing gene therapy, his ‘last shot’ hit the target
Brenden Whittaker didn’t agree to gene therapy lightly. But he had been so sick for so long that the risk of the first-time-ever procedure would be worth it if that meant finally getting well. “I really didn’t have any other options, health-wise,” Brenden said. “I’d been sick for four or five years. They’d done countless tests, countless treatments, and nothing was working. This was really, honestly, one of my last shots at getting healthy.” The antibiotics that had been the young Ohio man’s ally against infection were finally failing, and doctors had been increasingly resorting to surgery, cutting out an infected lobe of his liver, half a right lung. Though the surgeries worked, removing the infection along with tissue, by late 2015 Brenden, his doctor, and his mother, Becky Whittaker — an oncology nurse who had guarded his health since his infancy — knew there were only a few bullets remaining in...