A woman with a genetic defect so rare that it doesn’t have a name yet, 42-year-old Joselin Linder is a carrier of what’s known as an “orphan gene,” a genetic defect that could have fatal consequences. Only 14 people have ever had this condition, and they’re all related to Linder. Five of them have died.
“There are days I have to force off my fears in order to get out of bed,” she tells the New York Post in an exclusive interview: “And there are other days when I know that being this near death reminds me how much I love life. It makes every part of every day something I am joyously grateful for.”
The first signs of her illness appeared before any actual symptoms. Her father, a small town Midwestern doctor, passed out, and hit his head after taking some anti-swelling medication. He received stitches for a wound on his head but was sent home with an otherwise clean bill of health.
Then one day at work, he found he couldn’t breathe. An ER doctor inserted a tube into his chest, and out flowed a viscous substance: pure lymph. When lymphatic fluid leaks in the body, it’s a sign of serious illness, but Linder’s father’s condition baffled doctors. After countless tests, they could find no defects in any of his organs.
Linder’s great-aunt provided the answers, in the form of her deceased husband’s medical chart. It revealed that the problem was in their genes, that a genetic defect affects the portal vein in the liver. Sufferers cannot digest protein, and as the condition worsens, they starve to death.
Linder’s father died at 49 years old. His autopsy revealed that after years of pooling of fatty lymph, his organs had essentially fused together.
A year later, Linder and her sister, Hilary, were tested for the disorder. The results came back positive for both of them.
Dr. Christine “Kricket” Seidman diagnosed the Linders and was the person they initially reached out to for help as their father’s health declined. Seidman, a genetics researcher at Harvard University, is now on the hunt for a cure.
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