“We cannot forget the stories of individuals who are no longer with us.”
Samantha Penn
2009 –
2011
Samantha Penn was a little more than a year old when she started developing colds and infections constantly. Doctors didn’t have a clear idea as to why the toddler couldn’t recover from her illnesses, and they never mentioned to her parents, Sara and Jeremy Penn, the possibility that their baby could have a fatal medical condition. In early 2011, when Samantha was 18 months old, they brought her to the emergency room for a high fever that wouldn’t break. They soon discovered their daughter had SCID – severe combined immunodeficiency disorder – defined by the absence of T cells in the immune system. Unable to recover from the savage infections that wracked her body, Samantha died two months later.