back over to you. all right melissa, thank you. a rare disease that has cut off children from the outside world may now have a cure. nbc's erica gonzalez shares the story of a little girl once confined to her home. she's now living in freedom thanks to researchers at ucla. this is eliana nochum, a little girl with big dreams. i would like to to be an artist. today, the 12 year old is indoors because she wants to be, not because she has to. the first year of her life was spent in the confines of a sterile environment, where doors and windows had to stay shut and visitors had to stay out, all to save her life. at four months old, eliana was diagnosed with a rare disease called severe combined immunodeficiency disorder, or scid. babies born with skid don't develop the cells required for a functioning immune system, and therefore every germ could potentially be deadly. eliana's form ada-scid is ultra rare, with fewer than ten cases a year. we had to get rid of our cat and dog. we couldn't have any plants in the house. we couldn't have any fresh fruits or vegetables. i mean, we really had to make our apartment as sterilized as possible place for her to live. you had to create a bubble. i had to create a bubble, yes. so instead of actually putting her in a bubble, we just lived in in a bigger bubble. and that's when the family from fredericksburg, virginia, heard about a clinical trial more than 2000 miles away from home in los angeles. that could potentially give eliana a chance to enjoy a life outside area. i'm no dummy, he told us. she could do gene therapy, she could do a bone marrow transplant. and if it's successful, they can live potentially like a normal life. and that's all i heard and that's all i cared about. doctor donald cohen is with ucla broad stem cell research and led the clinical trial. they've basically gone from being a very fragile baby, in danger of dying from infections to being healthy, vigorous kids. so it's really it's really gratifying to be able to do that. then one day, her family got the call that would open up their world again. so when she was a year and a half old and doctor cohen told us that she can go out and she can eat food that is normal and i'm allowed to kiss her now, you couldn't kiss your own child. no, no, i could not kiss my own child. no. because if. what if i have something for eliana? it's now a world full of possibility and a far cry from her past life. i think it's interesting to hear my own backstory. some of it's a little scary to to hear. like, if i didn't know it was like that. emotional and scary for them. her future, though, is right here in her own hands and as bright as the rainbow she
