Word: brianna
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...Brianna Oas has never drawn an easy breath. When she was a baby, her tiny chest convulsed at the slightest irritation. Instead of laughing, she would cough; instead of crying, gag. She succumbed to an endless string of , respiratory infections -- pneumonia, a cold, bronchitis, pneumonia again -- that ordinary antibiotics seemed powerless to curb. Diagnosed with a "failure to thrive," Brianna weighed less at one year than she did at six months. Finally, last August, just after the child's third birthday, her anxious parents took her to the University of Washington pulmonary clinic in Seattle. Chest X rays revealed that...
...Brianna was suffering from cystic fibrosis, the most common inherited disorder among whites and a disease that afflicts 25,000 Americans, killing more than 500 every year. Just 10 years ago, the prospects for a girl her age were as bleak as they were inevitable. As the combination of chronic infections, clogged airways and digestive problems took their toll, she could not have expected to outlive her teens. But now, says Ramsey, "Brianna has an excellent chance of living into adulthood." In fact, although Ramsey and other clinicians are reluctant to raise false hopes, Brianna and thousands of other babies...
...exciting but still trying times. The promise of new discoveries is tempered by the knowledge that most patients past puberty have already suffered too much lung damage to be saved by even the most sophisticated therapies. Younger patients have a chance, but there are no guarantees. In Poulsbo, Wash., Brianna Oas' parents are philosophical. "We're fully aware that whatever they come up with may not be in time for our daughter," concedes Jim Oas, a naval-yard manager. Brianna has been in and out of the hospital in recent weeks, but, he adds earnestly, "we are still very hopeful...