Yahoo News 17-Year-Old Who Beat Life-Threatening Disease Now Hopes to Become Doctor — and Is Headed to Harvard!
“From a young age I was strictly focused on medicine and becoming a doctor,” Hanif Mouehla, whose goal is to become a hematologist, tells PEOPLE
Khuraira Musa
It was just after his eighth birthday when Hanif Mouehla found himself fighting for his life after being diagnosed with sickle cell disease. Inspired by the care he received, the 17-year-old is now eyeing the pre-med track at Harvard University so that he can pay it forward one day.
“I would say that from a young age I was strictly focused on medicine and becoming a doctor,” the recent high school graduate, who is headed to the prestigious university in the fall, tells PEOPLE.
When he was eight years old, Hanif was admitted to the intensive care unit at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital in Westchester County, New York. At the time, his condition was worsening and doctors placed him in a coma after both of his lungs collapsed as of the disease.
“I had my worst pain crisis in my life where I had a 20% chance of surviving,” Hanif says.
For six weeks, his prognosis was unclear and doctors were uncertain that he would survive — but the young boy fought back, and is now sharing how an experimental stem cell transplant not only saved his life, but also gave him a purpose.
“Watching the medical center as a whole, that was something I really wanted to emulate and caused me to want to [choose] medicine, specifically being a hematologist," he shares.
Hanif is considered to be cured of sickle cell, something the doctor who treated him both revels in and respects.
Dr. Mitchell Cairo, the pediatric hematology-oncology specialist who treated Hanif nearly a decade ago, now has another connection to the teen: he's his boss.
Last summer, Hanif worked in the doctor’s research lab alongside, aligned in the mutual goal to find a cure for the debilitating disease, which is an inherited blood disorder that affects an estimated 70,000-100,000 Americans. The disease also has the highest incidence in Black community, where 1 in 13 people are diagnosed each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
WMCHealth
Cairo’s sickle cell disease therapy is currently in the second phase of a clinical trial, with a handful of centers participating in it, according to the hospital.
Years ago, Cairo’s research paved the way for Hanif to receive a familial haploidentical stem cell transplant from his mother, Khuraira Musa, since none of his siblings were a match.
Khuraira’s cells were first “supercharged” in Cairo’s lab to ensure that they could destroy the sickle cells in Hanif’s bloodstream.
About six months later, the doctor said Hanif was “relatively out of the woods and stable.”
“It's been a wonderful journey after Hanif had been cured,” Khuraira tells PEOPLE. “And for me as a parent, I only wish all parents to have what I have with Hanif today.”
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The experience planted the seed for Hanif to pursue a career in medicine, and in the years since his transplant and recovery, he’s worked hard to make the dream come to fruition.
At Northern Valley Regional High School at Old Tappan in New Jersey, Hanif excelled in academics, was class president, played on the football team — and learned last December that he had been accepted into the Class of 2027 at Harvard.
“To see this as a physician, it's really been one of the most enjoyable experiences I've had, to see this transformation,” Cairo says. “And of course, you get a transformation like where now he wants to pay it forward … it’s not easy to get into Harvard.
It's kind of an indescribable feeling because on top of seeing somebody sort of just resume their normal life, they're now kicking in the high gear and taking on additional stress to make a difference for the next generation," Cairo explains.
Adds Hanif, "I am just so thankful for everyone on my journey."
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