With Just 42 Known Cases, Drug Trial Is Delicate Task

January 29, 2007

Each week, Leslie Gordon reviews the cases of every child in the world known to have progeria, a premature-aging disease. These children almost always die of a heart attack, at an average age of 13. There are only 42 people in the world known to have the condition. One of them is Dr. Gordon’s 10-year-old son, Sampson Berns. “I now know more children who have died [of the disease] than are alive,” says Dr. Gordon. “That is a turning point that I never wanted to reach.” (Wall Street Journal [subscription only])