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An American teenager who was told he would not live past his sixth birthday has talked about something he never thought he would live long enough to have — a girlfriend.
Brryan Jackson’s life began in the worst possible way when his father Brian Stewart purposefully infected him with HIV in a bid to get out of child maintenance payments.
And even though his is due for parole this April, Brryan is less concerned with his past and more with enjoying his future with Brandi Wyatt.
In 1992, when just 11-months-old, Brryan’s parents were on the brink of divorce. His father — a blood transfusion specialist — was concerned about child support payments. With Brryan in hospital with asthma, Brian crept into his son’s hospital room and plunged a needle with HIV-tainted blood into him — sentencing him to, what doctors thought, was certain death.
As baby Brryan’s giggles and smiles turned to lethargy and weeping, his family became concerned and took him to the doctors to be tested.
With all other results returning negative, doctors decided to test blindly for HIV and were shocked with the positive result it returned.
Brian Stewart was questioned and shortly after arrested, where it was discovered he had allegedly threatened to use tainted blood as a weapon previously. He was convicted of first-degree assault in 1998 and received a life sentence. In court Judge Ellsworth Cundiff said Stewart belonged in the same category as “the worst war criminal”. He added: “I believe when God finally calls you, you are going to burn in hell from here to eternity.”
By 1996, Brryan was diagnosed with Aids and doctors gave Brryan just five months to live. Doctors warned if the illness did not kill him then the large doses of highly toxic drugs he was taking probably would. He took 23 oral pills, two IV bags, and three injections, which left him partially deaf and developed a slight speech impediment. Mother Jennifer said: “We live daily with the realisation that he will die of this disease or the complications that are related to this.”
Brryan admits that at the time he thought no one would ever want to go out with him and he’d never fall in love. Then one day last year he met Brandi. Brandi explained she had heard about Brryan’s story, which had turned him into a local celebrity, but did not know what he looked like. She said: “I saw Brryan and was like, ‘wow, this kid’s really hot!’ I was very flirty and got him to talk to me. Then I found out he’s a really cool person. I got to know the person behind the story.”
But once Brandi got home she began to worry about telling her parents she had kissed “the boy with Aids”. She said: “After I came to the realisation that yes, he does have Aids, I thought, ‘am I going to let this stop me from dating this boy?’”
Brryan says Brandi gives him the strength to fight the disease. “It’s pretty remarkable, I went from full blown Aids, on my death bed, given five months to live, and here I am 19-years-old, living on 15 years of borrowed time,” said Brryan, who takes just three pills daily and visits the doctor every three months.
Doctors believe his recovery is nothing short of a miracle after scans have found the virus has been undetectable in Brryan’s blood for two straight years now. “My muscles are actually building, they aren’t breaking down,” explained Brryan. “My doctors are amazed.” — Daily Mail.