Life has not been easy for 2-year-old Wryn Graydon of Moody, Alabama. She was born July 6, 2015, a seemingly healthy 7-pound, 10-ounce girl whom mom, Haley Graydon, had carried full term with no health issues for either her or her baby. The only abnormality — which may have been a clue of the difficulties to come — was that Haley had an abnormally large placenta and measured far ahead of schedule halfway through the pregnancy.

A newborn screening suggested Wryn had congenital hypothyroidism, an inadequate thyroid hormone production in newborns. But a few weeks later, Wryn began doing worse despite treatment. She developed widespread swelling of the skin and sepsis, which led to an intensive care admission at just over 2 months of age. Wryn was dehydrated, and it was difficult to draw the blood needed to help accurately diagnose what was wrong.

Daniel Feig, M.D., division director of Pediatric Nephrology at UAB and medical director of Renal Transplantation at Children’s of Alabama, and his nephrology team were able to definitively diagnose a 10-week-old Wryn with congenital nephrotic syndrome of the Finnish type, a rare and severe disease seen in one in 50,000 children worldwide. 

Read the story at UAB News.