An incredibly strong 7-year-old who was seemingly about to lose his life earlier this week was granted the relief that might save him. Meet Josh Hardy.
Josh has already overcome heart failure and beaten cancer four times in his short life. But now the "very curable" adenovirus is threatening to end his battle. (Via Fox News)
As of Wednesday, Josh was in critical condition — suffering from kidney and heart failure and vomiting blood several times an hour. (Via HLN)
He developed the virus after a bone marrow transplant. In a blog post earlier this month, Josh's mom, Aimee Hardy, explained: "Normally, Josh's immune system would be able to handle [the] adenovirus if his immune system was set free. The challenge is his immune system can't be set free yet because his body is still trying to adapt to the new bone marrow cells. So to keep the body from killing the new cells, they have to suppress the immune system, thus creating ideal conditions for adenovirus to advance. Catch 22." (Via CaringBridge / Joshua Hardy)
Now, there is an experimental drug that could potentially save his life, but the company that manufactures it denied multiple requests from Josh's doctors to provide him with the drug.
"The drug they so desperately need is called brincidofovir. ... But the company says its government assistance ran out in 2012. Since then, they've been forced to spend every resource trying to get the drug FDA approved." (Via ABC)
Josh was originally denied the drug through an FDA policy called compassionate use. It allows someone with a life-threatening illness to ask a drug company for an experimental drug. But two years ago, Chimerix decided to stop the compassionate use program and focus on testing.
In a press release, the company's chief executive wrote, "Being unable to fulfill requests for compassionate use is excruciating, and not a decision any one of us ever wants to have to make. It is essential that each individual in a health crisis be treated with equal gravity and value." (Via Chimerix)
But as of Tuesday, Chimerix reached an agreement with the FDA to begin a 20-patient pilot trial with Josh being the first to receive the medication. (Via Facebook / Aimee Hardy)
CBS was with Aimee Hardy when the news first came in.
"Oh my God! ... I really believe he's going to overcome this. I have a lot of faith that he is going to make a full recovery."
And we hope so, too. Josh is expected to start receiving the medication on Wednesday, and it could help battle the virus within just a couple of weeks.
