Baby suffering a “Brain Melting” killer disease survives

November 6, 2009 by Baby Chums
Filed under: Baby Health, News

An Australian baby girl, survives all odds against a rare, “brain melting” condition which kills about 100 babies each year.

A slow and painful death was almost assured for the baby known as “Z”. Her brain had begun to dissolve after birth because she had too much toxic sulphite in her system. However an amazing discovery after an experimental treatment only tested on mice has saved this baby’s life.

A drug which had never been tried on humans was discovered as Doctors and parents of Baby Z searched for help. The doctor from Germany agreed to courier his entire stock of the trial compound to Melbourne in an effort to combat the, “brain melting” disease known as molybdenum cofactor deficiency type A.

The mother said: “I refused to accept she would die. The procedure was a tiny bit of hope, but when you have nothing, that is a lot of hope.”

Doctors administered the drug in June last year and to their astonishment Baby Z’s sulphite levels dropped from nearly 300 to below 100 within hours. Within three days the levels were ‘normal’.

Baby Z’s mother said: “She is absolutely delightful and as stubborn as anything..she has just started saying a few words and is constantly moving around.”

The German doctor credited with the miraculous discovery of the drug known as cPMP (cyclic pyranopterin monophosphate) is Dr. Guenter Schwarz.