Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "His life was saved because Wisconsin required testing babies for 'bubble boy disease.'"

On January 7, 1986, 15-year-old Jeffrey Modell passed away from severe combined immunodeficiency (often known as SCID or “bubble boy disease”), a rare genetic condition in which a person’s immune system is severely impaired. If detected early enough, however, it can be cured with a bone marrow transplant. Thankfully, today, every newborn in America is tested for this disease. But that wasn’t always the case. For nearly a decade, the Modell family fought and failed to have a test for SCID added to the standard newborn screening. Then they met Dr. John Routes, a pediatric allergist and immunologist at Children’s Wisconsin, and everything changed.

Read more in this article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Children's Wisconsin Media Relations

The Children's Wisconsin Allergy and Clinical Immunology Department offers some of the most advanced testing in the county, allowing our team to provide a unique approach to asthma, allergy and immunology diagnosis and care.