My Son Won the “Mega Millions Lottery Jackpot” with ADNP Syndrome Diagnosis

Rare Disease Day is February 29th this year, so Global Genes reached out to members of the rare disease community to share their stories about their diagnostic journey, treatment protocols, and becoming advocates. Hear from RARE Mom, Sandra Bedrosian Sermone about her son’s journey with ADNP Syndrome.

Sandra Bedrosian Sermone
Founder & CEO
ADNP Kids Research Foundation

Everyone at one point or another dreams about winning the lottery.

We dream of winning that enormous ‘mega millions jackpot’! We dream about the wonderful things we could do with the winnings and how our lives would change. We dream about all of the incredibly good and amazing things that would happen if only we lucked out and drew those magic 6 numbers.

But the odds are stacked against us, and there is probably a one in a billion chance of someone reading this post actually hitting the jackpot, well unless you are Taylor Swift, but the rest of us can still dream!

My dreams were shattered when my son Tony won the equivalent of the “Genetic Lottery Jackpot”!  He didn’t just win; he hit the Mega Billion Jackpot!

Look at this picture above, all you can see in his face is pure and unfiltered joy. This adorable little boy looks like the happiest kid in the world. Not because he just won millions of dollars on a lottery ticket, but because he is on his all-time favorite Disneyland ride Dumbo! Look at that face one more time, that smile, that joy. I bet it makes you happy just looking at it.

But now read this and then look at this picture again. What you can’t see are his numerous brain and heart abnormalities. You can’t see that he has had mini strokes, seizures or that he has brain degeneration. You can’t tell that behind his beautiful smile he can’t speak, has severe autism, profound intellectual disability and global developmental delays. You can’t see that he still wear diapers, that he can’t feed himself, dress himself, communicate or even have the ability to tell us if he doesn’t feel well. You can’t imagine that he has no friends, never gets invited to parties and often sat alone in a school classroom with no other kids because when you are this severe that is where his school thinks he belongs. You can’t see the heartbreaking sight of his little body full of surgery scars down his chest, across his back and all over his body. You can’t imagine him in a coma, on a ventilator or bypass machine fighting for his life, and you can’t see the dozens of other medical conditions that he suffers with each and every day. You can’t see the strength inside this little boy that is as strong as a real life superhero. The only thing you can see is that great big gigantic mega millions jackpot “winning smile”!

When this beautiful boy was born in 2008, along with his equally adorable twin brother, we felt like we had won the lottery! We had an amazing 2 year old daughter and now 2 healthy twin boys. But within hours, everything changed, everything started going very wrong with Tony.  The dreams of our perfect family, life and plans for the future, all came crashing down on us and our new family was forever changed and the life we hoped for our son was forever broken, because after 6 years of genetic testing and searching for answers, he was diagnosed with something so severe and so rare that it didn’t even have a name.

Yes, after 6 years of hospitals, specialists, surgeries, therapies, tests and procedures, we finally received a genetic diagnosis for our son. We were told that out of the 6 billion people who walk our planet, our son was the only known human being in the world with this specific genetic change causing a condition that has NO treatment and NO cure! The equivalent of winning the “bad luck mega billion DNA jackpot”!

Sounds like some crazy odds doesn’t it? Let me explain…

We all have 23 pairs of chromosomes. In those chromosomes are approximately 20,000 human protein-coding genes and those genes contain thousands of letters which write the coding of our DNA. Located on one of those chromosomes, (chromosome 20 to be exact), is a protein-coding gene called ADNP. Inside that one gene, the 1046th letter should be a T and the 1047th letter should be a G. Tony is missing a “T” and a “G”, two measly letters in one teeny-tiny gene and this has caused a horrific debilitating and incurable rare genetic disorder called ADNP Syndrome. And to take these odds over the top, this genetic mutation is NOT hereditary. Meaning, neither his father or myself carry this genetic condition, and this is why his twin brother is not affected, it’s just changed in Tony’s DNA…. . Like I said, Tony hit the genetic-jackpot, what are the odds?

But he is not the only one out there. There are approximately 500 other children in the world now who also have some sort of mutation, slightly different from his, on their ADNP gene. They also have won the genetic lottery and now share the same condition as Tony called ADNP Syndrome.

ADNP Syndrome is a rare neurodevelopmental genetic disorder caused by a mutation in the ADNP gene. The gene affects brain formation and development, as well as brain function. It can cause problems with just about every system in the body. Individuals can have mild to severe delays in intelligence, speech and motor planning (including gross, fine and oral motor) and it causes behavior disorders such as Autism Spectrum Disorders and is one of the most frequent ASD-associated genes known to date. Characteristics in children are a happy demeanor, frequent smiling and laughing. A unique biomarker is early baby teeth eruption; most children with ADNP syndrome had a full mouth of teeth by their 1st birthday.

Rare Disease Day Awareness

According to the rare disease advocacy group Global Genes,

• 30 MILLION AMERICANS have a rare disease or disorder.
• More than 50% diagnosed are children.
• 80% are genetic in origin.
• 95% of rare diseases have zero (0) FDA approved drug treatments.
• Many of these pediatric rare diseases are linked to brain genes, causing global neurodevelopmental delays and autism.

Tony falls into ALL of those categories. #jackpot

He is one of those 30 million American’s and on February 29th this year, we recognize him and everyone living with a rare disease. It is WORLD RARE DISEASE DAY!

The main objective of Rare Disease Day is to raise awareness among the general public and decision-makers about rare diseases and their impact on patients’ lives. So as a parent of a child with a rare disease, and on behalf of the 30 million other Americans with a rare disease, please remember that we are here.

Rare disease patients like my son are superheroes. They are brave, strong, courageous and unique. The are full of love and they hope for research, treatments and a cure.

​You can make a difference in their lives on Rare Disease Day and every day by recognizing them and by supporting them, so that they can thrive and have a chance to live up to their true potential.

​To learn more about ADNP Syndrome please visit www.adnpfoundation.org and to learn more about Tony visit www.ADNPkids.com/Tony

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/one-moms-mission-to-find-a-cure-for-her-sons-rare-disease/

Read Sandra & Tony’s Story from 2018