CHOP Immunologist, Patient and Family Featured on Megyn Kelly TODAY
Published on
A Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) patient, family and immunologist appeared on a live broadcast of Megyn Kelly TODAY on Aug. 2, 2018, to discuss a medical mystery, a never-before-seen genetic disorder, and how doctors used the patient's own cells to customize a treatment for him. Correspondents Jenna Bush Hager, Jacob Soboroff and Keir Simmons conducted the interview.
Seven-year-old Elijah, his family, and CHOP Immunologist Neil Romberg, MD, appear on Megyn Kelly TODAY.
Elijah Patino spent the first few years of his life going from specialist to specialist, hospital to hospital, plagued with a mystery illness no doctor could diagnose. At one point, doctors even told Elijah’s parents they hoped he had leukemia because they knew how to combat the cancer.
That all changed with a phone call from a man the family had never met before – Neil Romberg, MD, an immunologist and Jeffrey Modell Endowed Chair in Pediatric Immunology Research at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
With the help of dozens of clinicians and researchers at CHOP, doctors identified the genetic defect causing Elijah's symptoms and named the condition, CD40LG duplication-associated autoimmune disease. Then, they used Elijah's own cells to create a personalized treatment to control his symptoms and dramatically improve the quality of his life. Today, Elijah is a happy and healthy 7-year-old who plays baseball and dreams of being an engineer.
Post Categories: CHOP in the Media