A Boy's Mysterious Illness Leads His Family On A Diagnostic Odyssey
Alex Yiu was born a healthy seeming baby. But by age 2, his muscle control and speech were deteriorating. His baffling condition took a decade to diagnose. The reanalysis of a DNA test was the key.
by Richard Harris
Oct 16, 2019
3 minutes
When Alex Yiu was born 14 years ago, he seemed like a typical healthy kid. But when he turned 2, his mother Caroline Cheung-Yiu started noticing things that were amiss — first little problems, then much bigger ones.
As Alex's health slowly deteriorated, Caroline and her husband, Bandy Yiu, set off on what's become known among families like theirs as a "diagnostic odyssey." This ended up being a 12-year quest that ended after a lucky accident.
As part of her quest to understand Alex's illness, San Diego-area resident Cheung-Yiu documented Alex's early life which she played for a meeting of families facing similar challenges.
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