Michael and Candace Barker pause for a photo with their son, Isaiah.
Isaiah, age 2, is battling a rare immune deficiency syndrome.
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Alleghany child battles rare immune deficiency disorder
By LAURA THORNBURG
Staff
In August 2005, Sparta couple Candace and Michael Barker welcomed a
new addition to their family, son Isaiah. To the overjoyed parents,
their newborn was all the couple had ever dreamed of.
Three months later, their bouncing baby boy came down with his first
illness, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). According to his mother,
in Isaiah's case, the RSV appeared to go away, only for it to harbor
in his lungs. On Christmas Eve 2005, to the fear of his parents,
Isaiah began to turn blue around his mouth. The couple took their
young son to Alleghany Memorial Hospital, who sent the three to Wake
Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem.
Isaiah's Journey
While at Baptist, 4-month-old Isaiah underwent a series of tests,
with medical professionals initially assuming the youngster had a
lung disorder. Conducting further tests, they found the initial
diagnosis to be incorrect, instead diagnosing Isaiah with being
neutropenic and having an immune deficiency. In layman's terms, the
youngster has an abnormally low number of neutrophil granulocytes,
which is a type of white blood cell.
In January 2006, the parents faced yet another diagnosis, that of
severe combined immune deficiency, SCIDS. The disease affects the way
the body has the inability to produce an adequate immune response to
fight off diseases.
In latter January 2006, just a couple weeks shy of being six months
old, young Isaiah underwent his very first transplant, receiving bone
marrow from his mother.
Over a period of time after the transplant was performed, doctors at
Duke University Medical Center took several X-rays of Isaiah's lungs
before talking to his parents about the results.
Recalling the day at the first of the year, mother Candace said,
"When we got to (the hospital), we had no idea what we were in store
for. We met with Dr. Joseph Roberts and he had told us that we could
not come back home; we wouldn't be able to go back home for at least
90 to 120 days, that we would be staying in Durham. He had a spot on
his lung from where he had had RSV for so long (and the doctors) said
that we wouldn't be getting out of the hospital until he got full
function...which would have meant, we would still be there right now."
Candace remembers, "One day, a doctor came in and said it was a
miracle...they came back in and the spot was gone off of his lungs.
We got to go to the Ronald McDonald House in Durham."
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