One of Thiago's favorite things is music, especially when it comes from his dad’s djembe, a percussion instrument.
Months before the sweeping quarantines imposed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, baby Thiago needed isolation and extra-special care of his own.
![St. Jude patient Thiago smiling while in a high chair.](/content/sites/www/en_US/home/about-st-jude/stories/meet-our-patients/meet-thiago/jcr:content/par-1/cnt_row_copy_1784371/par-1/cnt_column/par-1/cnt_image_copy.img.16.medium.jpg/1622582699451.jpg)
He was born in October 2019 with a genetic disorder known as X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency – often called bubble boy disease. That illness rendered his body unable to produce the B-cells, T-cells and natural-killer cells that form the framework of the immune system.
The simplest of infections could have proved fatal for the little boy.
![St. Jude patient Thiago with a hat in the bathtub.](/content/sites/www/en_US/home/about-st-jude/stories/meet-our-patients/meet-thiago/jcr:content/par-1/cnt_row_copy_1784371/par-1/cnt_column_copy_1744695461/par-1/cnt_image_copy.img.16.medium.jpg/1622582739251.jpg)
But after arriving at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital when he was about two months old, Thiago underwent a bold new gene therapy to reverse the mutation causing the disorder.
Families, like Thiago's, will never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food.
![St. Jude patient Thiago smiling with his parents.](/content/sites/www/en_US/home/about-st-jude/stories/meet-our-patients/meet-thiago/jcr:content/par-1/cnt_row_copy_copy_21/par-1/cnt_column_copy_copy/par-1/cnt_image_copy.img.16.medium.jpg/1622582753419.jpg)
The therapy, employing a modified virus to deliver and insert a corrected copy of the gene into stem cells, spurred the establishment of his immune system.
![St. Jude patient Thiago walking.](/content/sites/www/en_US/home/about-st-jude/stories/meet-our-patients/meet-thiago/jcr:content/par-1/cnt_row_copy_copy_21/par-1/cnt_column_copy/par-1/cnt_image_copy.img.16.medium.jpg/1622582763391.jpg)
Now back in his native Puerto Rico, the year-old boy is doing well, playing with his mother Marelis and dancing to the beats played by his percussionist father, Steven.