Wow, have you heard about Opal Sandy? She’s this adorable 18-month-old who just had her life completely changed by a new gene therapy! See, she was born deaf because of this gene issue, but thanks to a trial at Cambridge University, she got this infusion of a working copy of the gene in her right ear. It only took 16 minutes! And get this, within weeks, she could hear loud sounds!
Her mom, Jo Sandy, was talking to the BBC, saying how mind-blowing it was to see Opal react to sounds for the first time. And her dad, James Sandy, was at work when he got this message from Jo. He was kind of skeptical at first, thinking it might be a fluke, you know? But when he came home and tested Opal’s reaction to loud noises, he was blown away too!
After 24 weeks, Opal’s hearing got even better. Doctors were shocked at how well she responded to soft sounds, like whispers! They even noticed she’s started saying words like “Mama” and “Dada”!
The surgeon leading the trial, Professor Manohar Bance, was thrilled with the results, saying it’s even better than he expected! He’s calling it the start of a new era in deafness treatment.
And get this, there have been no bad side effects for Opal from the therapy! The company behind it, Regeneron, says she’s doing great. They’re testing it on kids in the U.S., Britain, and Spain.
This is just the first part of the trial, but it’s already showing so much promise. Another kid in the U.S. had improvements in his hearing too!
It’s amazing how technology is changing lives like this. Opal’s story was even shared at this big gene therapy conference in Baltimore!
