A year ago, on February 6, 2017, one boy lost his battle with ALD. Carter’s mom, Stacie, is amazing and shares his story with honesty and love.

THIS is ALD #12 — Carter

December 31, 2010 my youngest son was born. Carter Joseph, weighing in at 8 lb 1 oz and was 21 inches long, a healthy baby boy. Carter completed our family, he made us a party of four, and we couldn’t have been happier.

He met all his milestones, was thriving, just overall a very happy baby. Then the toddler years came, he was into everything, such a daredevil who was absolutely fearless. His personality was unlike any toddler his age, a typical boy with gorgeous blonde hair, big blue eyes that would cheer you up on your worst of days. That part of Carter never changed, but at age 4.5 things started to be different.

After many appointments with many doctors, Carter was diagnosed with ALD, “a too late” diagnosis left us with no options to save our baby, and for 14 months he battled this relentless disease. Month by month after diagnosis, Carter lost his abilities… sight, sound, speech, swallowing, walking, until he became 100% dependent on us, within 6 short months. ALD robbed Carter of everything.

It took a toll on all of us as we watched the boy who was scared of nothing, losing his biggest fight. Quickly after Carter’s diagnosis my whole family was tested, as ALD is a genetic disease… Carter was the only male affected, myself and my mother are the only women in the family and we are both carriers… while her VLCFA numbers were way higher than mine, it didn’t matter as I still passed it to Carter. My oldest son, Peyton (age 10) was not affected, and he very easily could have, as it’s a 50/50 chance each pregnancy. Scary odds, even scarier if you didn’t even know about ALD, yet were a carrier of such a deadly disease.

Knowledge is power, Newborn Screening is necessary — I’d give anything to know what I know now, and maybe, just maybe, I wouldn’t have had to watch my baby take his last breath at just 6 years old, and somehow continue living this life without him.

— Stacie (Carter’s mom)

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Unfortunately, Carter’s story is not uncommon for childhood/cerebral ALD. If you don’t know that the mutation is lurking, and are not looking for it, ALD is often diagnosed too late for any treatment. Families are faced with helplessly watching their child’s abilities be taken one by one, before they are completely robbed of everything.

Newborn screening would have given Carter’s family knowledge and power and hope.

Thank you Stacie for sharing Carter’s story with us.

Love, Jess