A Kid with a Deadly and Invisible Disease (Barth Syndrome)

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- [Interviewer] Ryan, how old are you? - Eight. - [Interviewer] Connor, how old are you? - 11. - [Interviewer] What's it like to have a younger brother who's taller than you? - It doesn't matter cause like you'll be tall one day too. - [Interviewer] When somebody meets you for the first time, what do you hope they think? - That I'm nice, friendly, and kind. - [Interviewer] Why is that important to you? - Cause like that's what you have to be to like have a friend. - I have a rare condition too. That we'll only be talking. You may notice that only half my face works. - [Interviewer] Yes, I did notice. - Yeah. - [Interviewer] What is that? - So I have a small little thing called a facial nerve schwannoma which is a tumor, a benign tumor that's on my facial nerve in behind my ear. - [Interviewer] Did that put you in a unique position to guide Connor through his rare syndrome? - No, because mine isn't life threatening. It's not a disease where the people that are afflicted by it look any different. So people see my son and think that he's just a normal kid when he really isn't. - [Interviewer] What's it like to be you? - It's like to be having Barth syndrome and not being as strong as everyone else in your class and being short. - [Interviewer] What are some of the complications of Barth syndrome that are hard to talk about in front of Connor? - Life expectancy. That's difficult. - [Interviewer] If you had one wish, what would it be? - To never go to school again. - [Interviewer] Why would that be your wish? - Cause it's just boring and I would rather watch TV. - One of the biggest problems with Barth syndrome is that little boys that have it look so normal and no one would ever understand that inside there's such a deadly disease living. - [Interviewer] What's it like to have a younger brother who looks up to you? - Sometimes they can be annoying, but sometimes they can also be nice. - We get in fights because sometimes Connor just wants to annoy me cause he's the older one. - [Interviewer] So you annoy him on purpose? You annoy him on purpose sometimes? - Mm-hmm. - [Interviewer] What do you do? - I just tell him to get out of here. - [Interviewer] What do you think when he says that? - I know that he is just trying to annoy me and I try not to get really angry. - [Interviewer] Even when you guys are arguing, are you still brothers that love each other? - Yes. - Mm-hmm. - [Interviewer] How do you know? - Because no matter how much we argue, the next day or even the next week, we are always laughing together again. - [Interviewer] You said that Barth syndrome is life threatening, so I'm assuming this is something you all actively discuss? - We do. We do. Yes. - [Interviewer] What do you tell him? - Well, we tell him that it's important for him to continue to take his medications and to recognize when something might not feel right inside of him. For instance, he can't tolerate high heat, so in days today where it's 90 plus degrees outside he wouldn't be allowed to really go outside too much. The heat could overcome him. - [Interviewer] What is Barth syndrome? - It's a disease where like it causes your heart and you have to take medicine. - [Interviewer] What does it do to your heart? - It's small and it could have problems at any time. - [Interviewer] Barth syndrome is a ultra rare, X-linked metabolic disease. It's genetically caused, X linked refers to the fact that it only affects boys. It's ultra rare. And basically what that means is that people with Barth syndrome, the cells in their bodies, the mitochondria in their cells is damaged and doesn't create energy or allow them to enjoy any sort of endurance physically and that affects all the muscles in their bodies. The largest muscle in your body is your heart. So children with Barth syndrome almost 100% of the time have heart disease. So Connor suffers from heart disease, dilated cardiomyopathy. - [Interviewer] Does Connor ever teach you about Barth syndrome? - Yeah, because sometimes I'm a little too rough with him and he always reminds me that he can't do everything that I do. - [Interviewer] What do you tell him, Connor? - Just like take it easy a little. - [Interviewer] Do you have to take special care of your heart? - Mm-hmm. - [Interviewer] What do you do to take special care of your heart? - Like I go to the hospital every year. - We've been open with him about the symptoms. He still isn't quite mature enough to be able to really articulate those verbally very well. So I think he's got a pretty good idea even though he can't articulate it, what the symptoms are but we don't talk too much about life expectancy, which is definitely shorter. - [Interviewer] When did you first start to realize your brother has Barth syndrome? - Well, when I was a baby, of course, I didn't really get it. But when I grew older, I realized that he was different and he couldn't do everything that I could do. - [Interviewer] What's your favorite thing about your mom? - That she made me. - That's it? I made you, that's all? That was the easy part. - [Interviewer] How would you describe Connor to somebody who doesn't know him? - He's very shy at first, but he has a very old soul, funny personality. He's quirky in a good way. - [Interviewer] If you could send a message to every adult in the world, what would you say? - Be nice to your kids. - [Interviewer] What can adults do to be nice to their kids? - Buy them whatever they want. - [Interviewer] What do you want? - Video games. - [Interviewer] What is the most important thing for others to understand about Barth syndrome? - I think primarily that it just really drains his energy. So a lot of times when you may think... I never want anyone accusing him of being lazy because it's not a laziness thing. It's just that he can't physically do what you're asking of him. - [Interviewer] Is it tough for people to understand that because it's not entirely physically visible? - Yeah. It is, a lot of people unless they can harken back to their biology days in school don't really know what mitochondria are, what they do or how they could be affected by a disease. And so it's hard for them to kind of understand. And even his friends it'll be like, why are you so slow? Or you can't keep up or what's going on? So as he's gotten older, he's had to learn how to tell some of his good buddies what's going on so that they kind of understand and not to make fun of him cause they don't make fun of him, but tried him for not being able to keep up. - There's another thing that people don't ever see and it's Connor's food diversions. He has really a lot of problems with eating. He's very rarely hungry. So he's almost 12 and he weighs about 45 pounds. So he's recently the size of maybe a boy half his age and we can't get him to eat cause he's just not hungry. - [Interviewer] What is school like for you? - Very boring. And it's just not fun. - [Interviewer] Why not? - Cause you have to learn and it's really hard - Thinking actually takes a lot of energy. And so school's hard for him just to get through the day. A lot of boys with Barth syndrome don't even go to school full time. So he is able to handle it full time although he does get tired sometimes. Yeah. - [Interviewer] Can you describe what is happening in the body when a person with Barth syndrome does not have the energy to do something? - Kind of, as I said, it's a metabolic disease and I'm not a scientist or a research person, but basically the cells in Connor's body are damaged and inside each of the cells and all of our body there's a thing called the mitochondria which is basically a circular piece of energy that all of them put together allows you to have movement and energy and endurance. And they build muscle. And the mitochondria, the chain, every cell inside of Connor's body is basically broken and that doesn't spin around and create the energy the way that it's supposed to. - Sometimes I like to go outside and me and Connor like to play on the trampoline a little and I run all the way to the trampoline. And sometimes I realize that Connor can't run as fast as me. So I go back and help him. - [Interviewer] What are you thinking when something like that happens and your brother's running ahead of you and you can't keep up? - Just take your time cause you know you'll be there. - [Interviewer] What's your favorite thing to do? - Play baseball. - There are things that we can't do that other families can do. Connor mentioned earlier that he likes to play baseball, but he likes to play baseball in the driveway with me hitting a whiffle ball. Connor can't play organized sports. So we don't go to lacrosse games on Saturday mornings or soccer games on Saturday mornings. We haven't been able to do that. So that's something that he doesn't able to do. And I guess, like you said the question was, what do I want other people to know is that there's never a single day that goes by where we aren't affected by it in some way or another. - [Interviewer] What did you think when you first learned about Barth syndrome? - I thought when my parents told me it was very unique and only about 300 people in the world had it. And I thought that that was not a lot compared to 7 billion people. So I thought it was really unique and my brother was just very unlucky to have it. - [Interviewer] Do you want other people to know about Barth syndrome? - Yeah. - [Interviewer] Why? - Because the more people know about it, more scientists will know about it and try and get a cure. - [Interviewer] What's the best thing about having a brother? - That you can play with him. - [Interviewer] What's the worst thing about having a brother? - He sometimes annoys you and sometimes he can just do his annoying singing and it's just really annoying. So I tell him to go away. - I do not sing and it is certainly not annoying. - Yes, you do. - No, I don't. No, I didn't. - Yes, you did. You were singing in the bathroom. - No, I wasn't. - [Interviewer] So right now you guys are arguing, but you still love each other? - Yes. - Yes. - [Interviewer] What does it feel like to love a brother while you're arguing? - Well, at that moment we probably feel like we don't like each other that much, but then after maybe a few days or just one day, we'll forget about it and then we'll beat brothers again. - [Interviewer] How does Barth syndrome impact the heart? - The heart's a muscle, and so just like it affects every other muscle on the body. The heart doesn't function, it doesn't squeeze as efficiently. The blood flow isn't always as good as it should be. And the left ventricle can be dilated, can be larger. - He also has neutropenia, which is a symptom that means that he has very low white blood cell counts. So he's unable to fight off bacterial infections. So we have to be very careful about him catching something like pneumonia and sort of bacterial infection can be life threatening for him. - [Interviewer] What's your favorite thing about Connor, Ryan? - He's always open to play with me and he is always there when I need him. - [Interviewer] What kind of stuff does he help you with? - He offers to help me with my homework a lot. - [Interviewer] Why do you like to help your brother with homework? - Cause it's easy. - [Interviewer] I thought you didn't like school though. - Well, second grade's easy. - He doesn't get invited to all the things that all the kids get to do. He doesn't get to go to paintball, birthday parties or he can't go to Sky Zone and jump in the trampolines like all the other boys. But when one of his friends is playing baseball, a couple of their parents have picked him up and taken him to the game to let him watch. And so we're very lucky and we're very fortunate, we've got a lot of great people in this community that I think understand Barth syndrome as much as they probably need to. I wouldn't expect anybody to understand what happens in our home on Tuesday night at six o'clock, I don't know what happens in their homes. They might have challenges that I don't know about happening in their homes, I have no complaints about our community. - [Interviewer] What are some things you have to do because of Barth syndrome? - Take medicine and take shots and get blood work done and go to the hospital more. - [Interviewer] What is the most important thing you hope others understand about Barth syndrome? - That it is a deadly disease and that we're never, ever completely comfortable that something isn't gonna happen to Connor. Mostly right now his heart is in good shape but his cardiac problems could really present a problem. The last couple of boys that we've lost to the syndrome have died of sudden arrhythmias and just basically had problems with their heart completely. There was no symptoms like preexisting thing that, well, there was a preexisting thing but there was no sign that there was gonna be a problem. So I think that would be the thing that I would probably if I was gonna share with most people that we're always nervous that something's going to happen to him. - [Interviewer] Will you be close with Ryan when you two are adults? - Mm-hmm. - Yeah. - [Interviewer] What kind of relationship will you have then? - We'll be brothers and we'll really like each other, certainly more than we do right now. - [Interviewer] How much do you like each other right now? - Seven out of 10. - [Interviewer] Is there anything else you wanna say about your dad? - He'll always play with you.
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Channel: Special Books by Special Kids
Views: 1,358,069
Rating: undefined out of 5
Keywords: Barth syndrome
Id: Ry7nrqzvMss
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Length: 14min 47sec (887 seconds)
Published: Tue Sep 06 2022
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