One-year-old Jeremiah Upshaw was born with a rare gene abnormality and has been at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles since Aug. 27 waiting to undergo a bone marrow transplant that will potentially save his life.
Jeremiah was diagnosed with a condition called very-early onset IBD that is related to Crohn’s disease but different in that it affects toddlers and is associated with immune disorders.
Since he was 6 months old, he visited Valley Children’s Hospital three times before being treated in Los Angeles.
Dr. Warolin from the Valley Children’s Clinic in Bakersfield treated Jeremiah during his early stages and says this is one of the most rare cases he’s ever seen.
“It’s the first one I have ever seen," said Dr. Warolin. "Hopefully, the bone marrow will take care of this and will be able to get his intestine to heal. All of his infections will go away if we can get the bone marrow transplant, and our hope is to get him back to a happy, healthy normal child, but he still has a lot of work until he gets there.”
Jeremiah is set to undergo chemotherapy in late November or December before continuing with the bone marrow transplant. A procedure everyone hopes will be the answer and the cure for Jeremiah to live a long healthy life.
If you would like to follow his journey, you can follow his Facebook page Jeremiah’s Journey.
