22-Year-Old Future Pilot, Daniel Cressy, Becomes The First To Receive Gene Therapy For Sickle Cell In Louisiana

22-year-old Daniel Cressy may now be able to reach his aspirations of becoming a pilot due to medical innovation.

Cressy is driving an 18-wheeler truck delivering food between New Orleans and Lafayette, LA. However, he dreams of the day when he can fly in the skies. Fortunately, that dream could become a reality soon. Cressy is currently battling sickle cell disease, joining 1,430 people in Louisiana who were hospitalized with the disease in 2023, NOLA.com reports. Sickle cell occurs through a gene mutation that distorts red blood cells from their traditional disc shape into a crescent or “sickle” shape, making it harder for them to move through the body, notes the National Institute of Health. This can lead to immense pain for individuals. However, Cressy is undergoing gene therapy, which is an approach used to modify an individual’s genes to cure the disease.

He will receive his own modified stem cells, which have been edited to “reset his body switch.” The process reactivates his fetal hemoglobin gene (which is turned off naturally after infancy), and this will prevent the red blood cells from mutating. Cressy will also have to go through chemotherapy and be in isolation for a month.

“His cells, once they’re changed, effectively become the drug” — with his own body creating “a cure,” said Dr. Zachary LeBlanc, a pediatric hematologist and oncologist at Manning Family Children’s, according to NOLA.com.

Cressy is the first person in Louisiana to receive this gene therapy, which costs millions, in hopes of curing his sickle cell. A 10-year-old in Shreveport has passed the approval process as well, while thousands are awaiting approval.

“You’re still probably only talking about in the history of the planet, 150 maybe 200 people now that have ever done this,” LeBlanc said, per the outlet. “The vast majority of them have been in the last two or three years.”

If all goes well for Cressy, he can apply for medical clearance. His aspirations of becoming a pilot would then be within arm’s reach. The Federal Aviation Administration has cleared people who have undergone gene therapy to fly again.

“There’s no freedom like flying. It’s an escape from everything else,” he expressed to NOLA.com. “When you’re up in the clouds, it’s just you and the plane.”

“I want people to see that what was once impossible is possible,” he mentioned to NOLA.com “If I can do it, they can do it.”