Genes, blood, and courage

"David Nathan was stunned when he first saw Dayem Saif at Children's Hospital in Boston in September 1968. Dayem was then a six-year-old with the stature of an average-sized boy of two. The child was being ravaged by thalassemia, a life-threatening inherited disease of the blood, and one of the leading causes of disability, disfigurement, and death in children worldwide. Without effective treatment, Dayem would almost certainly die before his twentieth birthday." "Genes, Blood, and Courage is David Nathan's absorbing story of the thirty-year struggle to keep Dayem alive. "Immortal Sword" is the English translation of Dayem's Arabic name, and under Nathan's care Dayem, indeed, seems immortal. Despite his continual reluctance to follow his doctor's orders and the repeated hospitalizations that result, Dayem - the misshapen, stunted boy - becomes a handsome, successful businessman." "In Genes, Blood, and Courage Nathan goes beyond his struggles with this seemingly immortal patient to masterfully describe the emergence, over the past twenty-five years, of an entirely new force in medical care called molecular medicine. As Dayem's case illustrates, this new area of human genetic research - in which Nathan is a leading clinical investigator - promises tremendous advances in the rational diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of inherited disorders, such as thalassemia and sickle cell anemia, and even of acquired illnesses such as cancer and infectious disease."--BOOK JACKET.