the excitement was palpable in christopher mcdougall’s voice as he described how a newly approved medication for people with cystic fibrosis (cf) could change his daughter’s life.
“this has been a hard-fought battle and i’m ecstatic,” said mcdougall.
his daughter emmanuella, now 11 years old, was diagnosed with cf when she was just 23 days old as part of saskatchewan’s newborn screening program. cf is a progressive genetic disease that can cause lungs to deteriorate and malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies, causing children to often struggle gaining weight. there is no cure.
according to cystic fibrosis canada, about one in every 3,600 children born in canada has cf.
in the summer of 2020, emmanuella’s lung function dropped to around 80 per cent and she was struggling to gain weight. mcdougall said they applied for another cf medication the province covers called orkambi. after a year-long application process, emmanuella finally received the medication this july.
“there was a radical change within a short period of time after taking one of these medicines,” mcdougall said, noting emmanuella’s lung capacity climbed well above 90 per cent and she gained weight.
now an even better medication for combatting cf is being covered by the provincial government.