{"id":748968,"date":"2026-06-25T11:20:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T15:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/?p=748968"},"modified":"2026-06-25T20:05:38","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T00:05:38","slug":"breakthrough-doctors-cure-black-louisiana-mans-sickle-cell-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/2026\/06\/breakthrough-doctors-cure-black-louisiana-mans-sickle-cell-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"What Does &#8216;Functionally Cured&#8217; Sickle Cell Disease Mean?"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_CODE\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-CODE\" style=\"width: 745px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/images43\/daniel-cressy-745x402.jpg\" width=\"745\" height=\"402\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Photo of Daniel Cressy\"\/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-CODE\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Daniel Cressy was cured of sickle cell disease after undergoing revolutionary treatment. Photo: Screengrab<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>23-year-old Daniel Cressy is the first person in Louisiana to be &#8220;functionally cured&#8221; of the sickle cell genetic disorder that affects hemoglobin (the oxygen-carrying protein) in red blood cells.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Cressy is functionally cured, meaning the disease is no longer active in his body and he won&#8217;t suffer the painful effects of a sickle cell crisis. It is not a full cure.<\/p>\n<p>Cressy, of Metairie, is the first person in Louisiana to receive the breakthrough gene-editing therapy using his own stem cells to stop producing defective cells that cause sickle cell.<\/p>\n<p>The breakthrough gene therapy may not produce the same results in other patients.<\/p>\n<h3>What is Sickle Cell Disease?<\/h3>\n<p>Sickle cell disease causes red blood cells to be deformed into a shape that resembles a sickle tool or crescent moon. The misshapen, rigid cells clump together obstructing blood flow and causing respiratory distress, intense pain, and infections. This condition is also called sickle cell crisis and sickle cell anemia.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_CODE\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-CODE\" style=\"width: 745px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/images43\/sickle-cell-745x465.jpg\" width=\"745\" height=\"465\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Photo of sickle cells vs normal red blood cells\"\/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-CODE\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Illustration showing normal red blood cells vs sickled cells.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Healthy red blood cells are round and move easily through blood vessels to carry oxygen throughout the body. The disorder is inherited from a child&#8217;s parents.<\/p>\n<p>Each parent has to have the sickle cell gene for the child to inherit the disease. If only one parent has the sickle cell gene and the other parent has a normal gene, the child will have sickle cell trait but not the disease.<\/p>\n<p>People with sickle cell trait can pass the trait on to their children. If both parents have sickle cell trait, their child has a 50% chance of being born with sickle cell trait, and a 25% chance of being born with sickle cell disease.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>23-year-old Daniel Cressy is the first person in Louisiana to be &#8220;functionally cured&#8221; of the sickle cell genetic disorder that affects hemoglobin (the oxygen-carrying protein) in red blood cells.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":748969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[484],"tags":[19151,15116,4584,3642,6118],"class_list":{"0":"post-748968","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-medicine","8":"tag-daniel-cressy","9":"tag-gene-therapy","10":"tag-louisiana-news","11":"tag-medical-conditions","12":"tag-sickle-cell"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=748968"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":749013,"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748968\/revisions\/749013"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/748969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}