23-year-old becomes first in state functionally cured of sickle cell disease

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE/Gray News) - A New Orleans man became the first person in Louisiana to be functionally cured of sickle cell disease through gene therapy.

Daniel Cressy, 23, underwent the procedure at Manning Family Children’s Hospital, with doctors saying the disease is now no longer active in his system.

“This entire journey was the hardest thing I’ve been through in my life,” Cressy shared during a press conference announcing he is clear of the disease.

He said it was a two-year battle and journey under the gene therapy procedure.

According to Cressy, his dream of becoming a pilot was almost taken away from him because of the blood disorder, and he wants to pay it forward through his own nonprofit to help other people going through the same treatment.

“I don’t want anybody else to have to experience the loneliness and the uncertainty and the hopelessness that I felt a couple of years ago,” Cressy said.

Doctors said the gene therapy uses a patient’s own stem cells that have been edited in a lab so they no longer produce the defective cells that cause the disease.

Around 3,000 people in Louisiana have sickle cell disease.

“Someone’s ability to access treatment and potentially cure should not be defined by their zip code,” Cressy said. “People in Louisiana deserve the same opportunity as people anywhere else in this country. The people living with sickle cell disease are here. They are neighbors, our friends, our families.”