© 2025 All Rights reserved WUSF
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Our daily newsletter, delivered first thing weekdays, keeps you connected to your community with news, culture, national NPR headlines, and more.

Price of love: Gene therapy gives hope to a child with spinal muscular atrophy

What's Health Got To Do With It Logo

On this episode, an infant with a harrowing diagnosis defies all odds after receiving a $2 million genetic treatment. Then, a look at medical certifications for pilots.

"What's Health Got to Do with It?" is a talk program from WJCT in Jacksonville that examines the intersection of health care and daily life.

On this episode, an infant with a harrowing diagnosis defies all odds after receiving a $2 million genetic treatment.

Rebecca shares the story of her son, who was diagnosed at birth with spinal muscular atrophy, a genetic disease that causes muscles to weaken and shrink. It affects the motor neurons in the spinal cord that control muscle movement.

Jackie Glascock, vice president of research at Cure SMA, provides insight on how gene therapies like Zolgensma (onasemnogene abeparvovec) are changing the landscape of how spinal muscular atrophy is treated.
Then, a look at medical certifications for pilots. A medical aviation expert outlines the rigorous health standards pilots must maintain, as well as unique mental and physical health challenges they face, including sleep deprivation and stress.

Helping us with this Leigh Speicher, an aerospace medicine specialist at the Mayo Clinic and past president of the Civil Aviation Medical Association.

The host is Dr. Joe Servin, a Jacksonville neurologist.

Click on the Listen button above to hear the program.

Click here  for previous episodes of "What's Health Got to Do With It?"

Copyright 2025 WJCT News

Stacey Bennett
You Count on Us, We Count on You: Donate to WUSF to support free, accessible journalism for yourself and the community.