Sickle cell disease has just been cured for the first time in New York

For 21 years, Sebastien Beauzile lived with a disease that shaped every part of his existence.

Chronic pain, hospital stays, a body that could not be trusted, and a future that felt permanently limited.

Doctors at Cohen Children’s Medical Center on Long Island gave him a single infusion that changed all of that.

Beauzile has become the first person in New York State to be cured of sickle cell anemia, using a gene therapy called Lyfgenia that reprogrammed his own bone marrow to produce healthy red blood cells for the first time in his life.