Cape Town Doctor Gets Miracle CF Drug to Kids Who Need It

When Jaylin Leitjies turned five, a medication changed everything about his short, difficult life. The Cape Town boy with cystic fibrosis had spent much of his first two years in intensive care, his lungs so damaged that doctors feared he wouldn't reach his tenth birthday.

Then Dr. Marco Zampoli, a pediatric pulmonologist at Red Cross Children's Hospital, got Jaylin on Trikafta. The results were immediate and stunning.

"Ever since Jaylin was put on the Trikafta, he has been a different person," said his mother, Ellen-Lee Leitjies. Jaylin hasn't been hospitalized once in the two years since starting treatment, a stark contrast to the constant hospital visits that defined his early childhood.

Here's the challenge: Trikafta isn't available through South Africa's public health system. The medication costs roughly $200,000 per person per year, an impossible sum for Ellen-Lee, a widowed 24-year-old mother with no income.

So how is Jaylin getting this life-changing drug? Dr. Zampoli has become a master at navigating donations, treatment access programs, and creative solutions to get his patients what they need.

The medication itself has a complicated history in South Africa. American pharmaceutical company Vertex held the patent but wouldn't register it locally or find a distributor, leaving desperate families to fly to Argentina with empty suitcases to smuggle back generic versions.

That changed in 2024 when patient advocate Cheri Nel sued Vertex for patent abuse. The lawsuit led to a settlement that brought Trikafta to South Africa through a local distributor, though it remained impossibly expensive for most families.

The Ripple Effect

Jaylin's younger brother Justin, now five, also has cystic fibrosis and recently started on Trikafta too. Both boys are thriving in ways their mother once thought impossible.

Dr. Zampoli's determination to find solutions is helping other children access treatment as well. Through donated medication and creative workarounds within an imperfect system, he's proving that where there's medical will, there's often a way.

The brothers from Mitchells Plain now have futures that looked uncertain just a few years ago. Ellen-Lee no longer fears letting Jaylin play outside, and both boys are developing normally, their weights healthy and their hospital stays rare.

While systemic change remains necessary to make Trikafta accessible to all South African children who need it, doctors like Zampoli aren't waiting for perfect policy solutions. They're saving lives now, one creative workaround at a time.

For two brothers in Cape Town, that persistence means the difference between childhood spent in hospital wards and childhood spent simply being kids.