Man becomes first in New York to be cured of sickle cell

LONG ISLAND, NY (WCBS) - A 21-year-old man has become the first in New York to be cured of sickle cell anemia.

“We feel blessed to be the first to be able to offer this,” said Dr. Jonathan Fish with the Cohen Children’s Medical Center.

For 21 years, Sebastien Beauzile suffered chronic pain from debilitating sickle cell anemia and now he is making medical history.

“Sickle cell was like a blockade for me - now it’s like a wall that I just jumped over,” Beauzile said.

Beauzille was treated at the Cohen Children’s Medical Center where groundbreaking lyfgenia treatment used his own bone marrow in IV transfusions to create normal red blood cells.

“When we could use Sebastien’s own stem cells to do this therapy we were delighted,” Dr. Banu Aygun, another one of the doctors at Cohen Children’s Medical Center, said.

Dr. Jeffrey Lipton said sickle cell anemia has been mentioned in modern medicine texts since 1910.

“And here we are more than 100 years later, and this is the first cure you are seeing,” he said.

In a press conference, Beauzile gave thanks to the teams who were a part of his treatment.

“To the med four team, to the hematology team, the transplant team, you guys have really changed my life,” he said.

In the United States, sickle cell anemia most commonly affects people of African, Mediterranean or Middle Eastern descent.

Cohen Children’s Medical Center hopes to target those communities with this life-altering therapy

“Sebastien has been coming to this hospital since he was two months old. There are not enough words to show you how grateful I am,” Beauzile’s mother, Magda Lamour, said.

Sebastien will soon be able to travel, work out, and focus on his education. He hopes to work in the medical world.

“Amazing and I can’t wait to get back to my day-to-day life because now I feel unstoppable,” Beauzile said.