Luka's SCID Journey

On January 21st, 2024 Luka Joseph Dranchak was born after a long, traumatic labor & delivery. After experiencing some complications, including a few days in the NICU and IV antibiotics for Mom, Luka was finally cleared to go home! Just as the dust started to settle, Mike & Kirstyn received a devastating phone call from their pediatrician that Luka’s newborn screening for a genetic disorder came back positive. They immediately headed to CHOP and their sweet, perfect Luka was diagnosed with Severe Compromised Immune Deficiency (SCID) also known as “bubble boy disease.” SCID is an extremely rare genetic condition in which infants are born with no immune system, so rare that only 70 babies per year are diagnosed. This genetic mutation means that the simplest of infections can be fatal and without treatment life expectancy is around 2 years old. The gold standard for treatment is a bone marrow transplant and with early diagnosis and treatment most children go on to live happy, healthy lives. Our family is shattered by this diagnosis. Luka must live in total isolation while he awaits his bone marrow transplant and in the months following to ensure his body responds well to the transplant. Mike and Kirstyn are facing weekly/bi-weekly appointments to CHOP for immune therapy and once Luka has a donor, they will spend many more months hospitalized. We are fundraising to ease the financial burden Mike and Kirstyn are about to face in the coming year including medical bills, travel expenses and loss of income related to the time off from work to care for Luka. First and foremost our family asks for prayers for our precious Luka for a successful transplant surgery along with prayers for Mike and Kirstyn to remain hopeful, optimistic and healthy in this process. We are also asking that if you feel compelled, you sign up on “Be the Match” (https://my.bethematch.org/s/join?language=en_US) to help our family or another family with this life saving treatment.

Thank you all so much for your love and prayers during this difficult time for our little family ♥️