Press

A Superbug Killed My Daughter at 25

Five years ago, my daughter Mallory died. She had just turned 25. The coroner recorded her cause of death as cystic fibrosis, a disease that inflicts severe damage to the lungs and other organs. In fact, what killed her was a bacterial infection that had grown resistant to antibiotics.


To save a young woman besieged by Superbugs, Scientists hunt a killer virus.

The word from the doctors came early this week: They had tried one cocktail of antibiotics after another, but Mallory Smith’s fever and chill and chest rattle were only getting worse. They were out of options.


TO SAVE A YOUNG WOMAN BESIEGED BY SUPERBUGS, SCIENTISTS HUNT A KILLER VIRUS

The word from the doctors came early this week: They had tried one cocktail of antibiotics after another, but Mallory Smith’s fever and chill and chest rattle were only getting worse. They were out of options.


A patient's legacy: Researchers work to make phage therapy less of a long shot.

The researcher couldn’t get Mallory Smith’s story out of her mind. Smith was a 25-year-old cystic fibrosis patient, and she was near death at a Pittsburgh hospital, her lungs overwhelmed by bacteria. All antibiotics had failed. As a last resort, her father suggested an experimental treatment known as phage therapy.


Facing Mortality: A young woman's lifelong battle with illness.

The age of 25, for most people, is the beginning of life, not the end. But, as anyone will tell you, Mallory Smith, class of 2010, was not most people.


A fitting memorial: Superbug treatment named for the patient who inspired its discovery

Even for the most elite of bacteria-killers, these superbugs were a challenge.

They’d delayed Mallory Smith from getting a lung transplant, and when she’d finally had the surgery, the bacteria quickly migrated into her new lungs. They shrugged off cocktail after cocktail of antibiotics


Panel decries lack of attention for Antimicrobial Resistance

Frank Buckley interviews author and publicist Diane Shader Smith, who’s daughter, Mallory, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis and authored the posthumously published book “Salt in My Soul: An Unfinished Life.”


Mother carries on daughter's passion for life, love of Hawaii

Californian Mallory Smith, who loved the Hawaiian Islands, died at age 25 from an incurable disease that takes its average patient by age 37, but her words continue to speak to people around the world.


The luckiest man alive: Loving a woman with CF

I’m one of the lucky ones to be born without a nonsense CF (CF) gene mutation. In fact, I was lucky to be born without a CF gene mutation at all. Until a few years ago, I had never heard of CF, let alone met a patient. CF had no meaning to me then. That is, until I met and quickly fell in love with a beautiful young woman named Mallory Smith who had both: one common CF gene mutation, and one nonsense one. At that point, CF gene mutations took on a whole new meaning, since loving Mallory made me feel like the luckiest man alive—but having a girlfriend with deadly mutations threatened our future.