<\/p>\n
\nTo look at 4-year-old Michael Wilson as he runs and plays and smiles, you would never know he was diagnosed with a terminal illness. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because a cord blood transplant stopped it in its track, saving his life.\n<\/p>\n
\nHis older brother, Marshall wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t so lucky.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153My son lost his eyesight. My son lost his hearing. He can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hear me. He can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see me,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d his mother, Tammy Wilson, told ABC News. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He has seizures on a daily basis, on average six, sometimes 12 seizures a day.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\n<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n \nMarshall\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decline and diagnosis prompted doctors to quickly diagnose Michael and give him the treatment that would save him.\n<\/p>\n \nAs a baby, Marshall met every milestone until he was a year old in June 2010, Wilson said. But at 13 months, when Wilson was about 6 months pregnant with Michael, Marshall stopped walking. Then, he stopped crawling. Soon, he couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hold up his own head.\n<\/p>\n \nIt took five months for doctors to diagnosed Marshall with Krabbe, an inherited degenerative disease that would eventually kill him, Wilson said. Doctors immediately told Wilson to test her newborn for the disease as well, and in December 2010, they learned he, too, had it.\n<\/p>\n \nDoctors could save Michael by giving him a cord blood transplant, providing him with the enzyme he lacked to maintain the protective coating on nerve cells called myelin. He got the transplant on Feb. 10, 2011, and the Wilsons consider it his re-birthday.\n<\/p>\n \n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Marshall was no longer a candidate for this transplant because he was too symptomatic,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Wilson said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153From July to December, with the regression he went through as fast as he did, he was no longer a candidate for lifesaving treatment.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\n<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \nHad Marshall been tested as a newborn, he, too, could have been be running and playing with his brother. So Wilson is fighting to get Oregon to mandate a test for Krabbe as part of its standard newborn testing.\n<\/p>\n \nSimilar legislation has already passed in Illinois, New Mexico, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Missouri, said Anna Grantham, a spokesman for Hunter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Hope, a foundation that helps fund Krabbe research and push newborn testing. Grantham said ten states are considering bills this legislative session.\n<\/p>\n \nWilson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s representative in Oregon, Rep. Jim Weidner, sponsored a bill on her behalf last legislative session in 2013, and they hope it will pass this year.\n<\/p>\n \n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153When there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a cure for something, then we should be testing for it, so we can give a child an opportunity for a full life,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Weidner said.\n<\/p>\n \nAccording to the Mayo Clinic, these transplants can help pre-symptomatic infants by slowing the progression of the disease, but they still experience difficulties with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153speech, walking and other motor skills.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\n<\/p>\n \nSo far, Michael is doing well. And Wilson said she thinks 5-year-old Marshall is still aware of his surroundings, so she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll press her lips to his cheek to talk to him.\n<\/p>\n \n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m in full-blown tears because my son is communicating with me,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Wilson said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Which is very rewarding and comforting to me because I knew this disease may take everything from him. \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I know in my heart and soul that he knows I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m mom. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m thankful for the first year we had together.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" To look at 4-year-old Michael Wilson as he runs and plays and smiles, you would never know he was diagnosed with a terminal illness. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because a cord blood transplant stopped it in its track, saving his life. His older brother, Marshall wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t so lucky. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153My son lost his eyesight. My son lost his hearing. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6431\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}