It took more than 20 years for physicians to finally identify the disorder that caused Amanda Young to experience frequent life-threatening infections. By that time, Young, now 26, had spinal meningitis 3 times and had undergone amputation of her leg with hip disarticulation after a minor scratch lead to gas gangrene.
Unable to find an explanation, some physicians and hospitals simply turned Amanda and her parents away. But a referral to John I. Gallin, MD, at the National Institutes of Health's (NIH’s) Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md, led to Young's condition being identified as a rare genetic disorder that leaves her unable to produce IRAK-4, a key protein of the innate immune system.