When one-year-old Piper’s body began to swell one afternoon, her parents thought she was having an allergic reaction. They had no idea that they were about to embark on a journey of rare illness, complex treatments, and advocacy for children’s health. Piper’s parents, Erin and Chris Lee, took their daughter to her pediatrician, expecting a quick diagnosis and an easy solution. But Piper wasn’t allergic to anything. Instead, they learned her kidneys were failing; Piper would have to be admitted to Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children immediately. There, pediatric nephrologists proposed genetic testing for Piper. That’s because, although it was clear that Piper’s kidney function was declining, the cause of her decline wasn’t so obvious. In order to proceed with the best treatment for Piper, her doctors needed to know just what kind of kidney disease they were dealing with. They needed the help of precision medicine, a newer […]
