The Camp family knew

The Camp family knew

about birth defects long before their son David was

born. Although they had four healthy daughters, the

life of one of their nephews had been claimed by a hereditary disease seven years earlier.

Every father wants a son, but Mr. Camp knew that his nephew’s illness had been “sex-linked" — that is, girls carry the gene but boys get the illness—and that if his wife bore a son, he would run a 50-50 chance of being afflicted.

When David was born on March 19, 1968 in Wallingford, Conn., his parents and doctor were on the alert. At first, David seemed a fine, healthy looking 7 pound 10 ounce baby. But Dr. Jerome L’Heureux did not relax. He knew that if David was suffering from the same condition as his cousin, the signs might not show up initially.

Three months later, the insidious illness was discovered in laboratory tests. As feared, the diagnosis was sex-linked lymphopenic immunologic deficiency.

The prognosis was not good. Effects of this disease had always destroyed its victims’ lives before their first birthday.

Years of Research

Agammaglobulinemia (AGG) was first described in 1953. David's body lacked the normal defense system which helps us fight infections. Even a mild childhood illness could cause his death because of the deficiency in his ability to produce antibodies.

As far as Dr. L’Heureux knew, nothing effective could be done for David.

But when he consulted with his colleagues about the case, one called his attention to the AGG research work of Dr. Robert A. Good at the University of Minnesota.

He contacted Dr. Good and initiated a string of events that led to the first successful bone marrow transplant in history—giving life to one little boy, and giving hope to many others afflicted with immunologic deficiencies. Dr. Good is one of the many researchers whose work is sup