Brenden Whittaker, a college student in Ohio, has been caught off guard by his good health. Since he was young, a rare immune deficiency known as chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) had left him vulnerable to life-threatening infections. He was used to going in and out of the hospital, and then hooking up to an IV several times a day at home to receive antibiotics and antifungal drugs.
Over time, the infections got worse, and by 2009, Brenden was planning his funeral. He was 15.
“It was part of my mentality, not knowing how long I was going to live,” he says.
One infection was so bad that Brenden had part of his right lung removed — a last-ditch treatment. Another led to removal of part of his liver. He had to repeat his junior year of high school; later, he was forced to drop out of college.
“It just wasn’t feasible between all the doctor appointments,” Brenden says. “I couldn’t do the homework and the reading that was required.”
