A Devastating Diagnosis

In his office, the doctor softly closed the door and sat down across from Richard Mason and his wife Emma, with a sad look on his face. In a somber tone, the doctor delivered the most devastating news Mason had ever heard: like his sister, he had been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis.

At first, Mason could barely understand the words coming from his doctor’s mouth. How could he have cystic fibrosis – and how could they have only discovered it now. In fact, Mason told his doctor that there must have been some mistake. According to the father of three, he had undergone genetic testing in the 1980s that cleared him from the risk of developing cystic fibrosis! Sadly, as the doctor told him, those tests were infamously unreliable.