Doctor cures 'Baby Z' of molybdenum cofactor deficiency in medical world first

news.com.au ^ | 5th November 2009 | Grant McArthur

[naturalman1975]

A MELBOURNE baby given no chance of survival has amazed doctors after being saved with one of the biggest long shots in medical history.

"Baby Z's" brain started virtually dissolving soon after she was born 18 months ago because she had too much toxic sulphite in her system.

But her parents and doctors refused to give in to the one-in-a-million genetic condition and stumbled on a highly experimental drug. The Herald Sun can reveal treatment began a month after she was born and within days Baby Z "woke up".

"It was really like awakening - it was just bang, and she was switched on," pioneering neonatologist Dr Alex Veldman said.

Baby Z's overjoyed mother said she had grown into a happy and determined little girl.

"She is absolutely delightful and as stubborn as anything - I don't know where she gets that from," she said. "She has just started saying a few words and is constantly moving around.

"Every day just gets better and better. We look at her every day and just think, 'Wow'."

The first person to be cured of molybdenum cofactor deficiency - a condition that poisons the brain and kills within months of birth - Baby Z has made world medical and legal history for Monash Children's at Southern Health.

The child and her parents cannot be named for legal reasons and to protect their privacy.

But her relieved mother told the Herald Sun she refused to accept her daughter would die, even when told she had no chance.

[naturalman1975]

[DoughtyOne]

The Democrats in the U.S. could have fixed that problem. They would have done it months before birth.

I’m not sure if this can be diagnosed before birth, but that seems to be the cure for other things that can be.

The parents and doctor did very good here. Excellent!

[Dr. Sivana]

Obama will happily shell out for some palliative morphine, nothing more.

[ransomnote]

Wasn’t it aspirin? Oh wait...aspirin for heart attacks per Dr. Obama’s prescription. SO yes....it probably is morphine for babies

[skr]

All praise and glory to thee, Lord God Almighty!!!!!!!!

[Dr. Sivana]

Under most popular news on the source fort he article, #2 is a story about a woman in Wisconsin who was celebrating her miscarriage on Twitter, saving her the “need” to get an abortion.

We live in a schizophrenic world.

[thefactor]

i don't want to be a total jerk here, but what exactly are you praising G-d for? the disease or the humans who cured it? or creating the humans who cured it?

really i'm not trying to be a jerk. the only thing natural about this situation is the disease, it would seem.

[rottndog]

molybdenum

mo-lib-din-um

Molybdenum is a Group 6 chemical element with the symbol Mo and atomic number 42. The free element, which is a silvery metal, has the sixth-highest melting point of any element. It readily forms hard, stable carbides, and for this reason it is often used in high-strength steel alloys. Molybdenum does not occur as the free metal in nature, but rather in various oxidation states in minerals. Industrially molybdenum compounds are used in high pressure and high temperature applications, as pigments and catalysts.

Molybdenum minerals have long been known, but the element was "discovered" (in the sense of differentiating it as a new entity from minerals salts of other metals) in 1778 by Carl Wilhelm Scheele. The metal was first isolated in 1781 by Peter Jacob Hjelm.

Most molybdenum compounds have low water solubility, but the molybdate ion MoO2−4 is soluble and will form if molybdenum-containing minerals are in contact with oxygen and water. Recent theories suggest that the release of oxygen by early life was important in removing molybdenum from minerals into a soluble form in the early oceans, where it was used as a catalyst by single-celled organisms. This sequence may have been important in the history of life, because molybdenum-containing enzymes then became the most important catalysts used by some bacteria to break into atoms the atmospheric molecular nitrogen, allowing biological nitrogen fixation. This, in turn allowed biologically driven nitrogen-fertilization of the oceans, and thus the development of more complex organisms. At least 50 molybdenum-containing enzymes are known in bacteria and animals, which are mostly involved with nitrogen fixation. Molybdenum is a required element for life in these higher organisms, though not in all bacteria.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I don't speak for anyone else, but my choice is (c) Thank God for creating the people with the knowledge, skill, compassion, guts, and drive to cure this disease.

Can I have an Amen?

[CherylBower]

Amen! and how about creating the parents not willing to give up.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Amen to that, too!

[VOA]

But Monash's Dr Alex Veldman contacted Prof Schwarz in Cologne
and appealed to the hospital's ethics committee
to use the drug on Baby Z. The long shot was backed because the
only other option was a painful death.

Under Obamacare...I wonder if the ethics committees in the USA
will be as empathetic.
Or they'll be over-ruled by some government bean-counter that
will just read from some bureaucratic rule book.
Which will have the cost-benefit ratio analysis go against
the patient.

Of course, we have no real idea if Obamacare will do this.
Because the bill(s) are being assembled behind closed doors.
Some paragon of transparency, just like Obama promised.
(/SARC)

[arfingcat]

Amen. We also can thank God for the child’s birth and salvation.

[cajungirl]

God gave us the people who wanted to save lives and their work is truly God’s work on earth.

But that is just my opinion.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Darn right. I’m adding in thanks for the kid’s conception and gestation, too.

[Dr. Sivana]

Under Obamacare...I wonder if the ethics committees in the USA will be as empathetic.

Maybe, active membership in the Party could be helpful in such situations. Campaign donations to The Party can add bonus points on the patient chart.

[thefactor]

fair enough. amen.

[skr]

I'm praising God for the parents who didn't give up, who took a chance that would tell research whether or not they were on the right path.

I'm praising God for giving those in this baby's path their gift of knowledge and curiosity that they use to help others.

I'm praising God for this baby's life and for all the lives that may be saved from what the doctors have learned.

I'm praising God for everything He didn't have to give us but did anyway.

I would call you a cynic, which I am on occasion. But I do know Who is responsible for miracles and will save my cynical inclinations for human behavior, not God's.