Inside the Breakthrough That Cured a Black Louisiana Man’s Sickle Cell

Metairie, Louisiana, resident Daniel Cressy was told his dream of becoming a commercial pilot was impossible. Because of a lifelong battle with sickle cell disease, the Federal Aviation Administration simply wouldn’t consider him for a license. But Cressy just defied the odds in a historic medical first after undergoing a revolutionary treatment that functionally cured his disease.

Daniel Cressy, 23, was diagnosed with sickle cell anaemia—a serious, inherited blood disorder caused by a genetic mutation that distorts red blood cells—as an infant. The disease, which predominantly affects African Americans, misshapen cells in small blood vessels, restricting blood flow and causing severe pain and organ damage, and could even shorten life spans, according to the World Health Organization.

“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. But he refused to let that hopelessness dictate his future. Instead of giving up when he found out he wouldn’t be able to achieve his dream of flying the friendly skies, he started searching for a medical miracle. And he found it.

Cressy chose gene editing therapy, according to the Guardian. The revolutionary approach, approved by the FDA and the world’s first CRISPR/Cas9-based medicine, permanently alters a patient’s own stem cells, eliminating the need for traditional bone marrow transplants from matched donors.

Related: Sickle Cell Should’ve Killed Her as a Teenager, But Guess What Birthday She’s Celebrating This Year!

The magic happens once those modified cells return home. Re-infused into a patient’s body, they attached to bone marrow, reproduce rapidly and crank up the production of fetal hemoglobin. This specific protein delivers oxygen, and its presence acts as a natural off-switch for the disorder, the FDA said. With fetal hemoglobin dominating a patient’s system, their red blood cells are physically prevented from sickling.

For Cressy, the process took two years before he was admitted to Manning Family Children’s hospital’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders, which treated him with chemotherapy to eliminate his sickle cells. “This entire journey was the hardest thing I’ve been through in my life,” Cressy shared during a press conference, according to WBKO 13.

After a month in inpatient recovery, he was able to do the unthinkable.

History was made on Monday (June 22) as Cressy rang the hospital’s ceremonial bell, signaling the end of his battle with sickle cell after doctors said the disease is now no longer active in his system.

Cressy’s “greatest blessing” made him the first patient from the U.S. Gulf Coast region to successfully undergo the cutting-edge Casgevy CRISPR/Cas9 gene therapy.

“Curative gene therapy is restoring futures, and Daniel has paved the way for what is possible together with his care team,” the hospital’s chief executive officer, Lucio Fragoso, told the Guardian. “This is a proud and transformational moment for all of us.”

While CRISPR technology is being hailed as the holy grail of modern medicine, Vertex’s Casgevy carries a jaw-dropping price tag of $2.2 million per patient, CNBC reported. Currently, the therapy is strictly reserved for patients ages 12 and older who suffer from severe, recurring pain crises that standard medications can’t control. To even begin the process—which requires harvesting a patient’s stem cells, shipping them to global labs and undergoing intense chemotherapy to clear the bone marrow—one must have access to an authorized, highly specialized treatment center like Manning Family Children’s Hospital.

Daniel Cressy beat every single one of these staggering financial and medical odds—and now that he’s on the other side, he refuses to pull up the ladder behind him.

Stepping boldly into what he calls “life two,” he’s pursing his original dream of becoming a commercial aviator, and launching a mission to ensure no one else is left grounded by a diagnosis.

Through his newly founded nonprofit, the Privileged Pilots Project, Cressy is fighting medical and social barriers that block underserved communities from accessing these multi-million dollar genetic cures. He is also penning his journey in an upcoming book, beautifully titled “Blessing in the Skies,” using his second chance at life to help other soar just as high.

“While many spend their lives searching for purpose, mine found me,” Cressy said. “Now, instead of looking for meaning, I can spend my life fulfilling it.”