Family adds another miracle

[Special to the Times: Will Waldron] Miracle Child No. 1, Ashley, is a big girl now, 3 years old. And she has a brother, whom we’ll call Miracle Baby No. 2. That would be Taylor, in the arms of his mom, Carol Madeiros. The miracle is that a revolutionary technique enabled husband Larry, who is HIV-positive, to become a father without passing the virus to his wife or kids.

By DAVE SCHEIBER

© St. Petersburg Times, published October 29, 2000

As a couple, Carol and Larry Madeiros had no doubts. As eager potential parents, they had plenty. You see, Larry has HIV. Story

They wanted desperately to be parents. But first, they had to be detectives searching for answers a world away, a relentless tag team fighting the medical bureaucracy.

Ultimately, they needed to be pioneers.

Larry and Carol Madeiros were facing a daunting question most prospective parents never ponder: Would their desire to have a child have dire consequences for the baby or the mother?

Larry, you see, is HIV-positive. He was born with hemophilia and contracted the human immunodeficiency virus via a transfusion of tainted blood. In 1985, he and Carol fell in love while working as servers in the same Marriott hotel restaurant in Albany, N.Y. Married in 1989, they soon found themselves classified in medical terms as "HIV discordant" -- one spouse infected with the disease, the other healthy.

The Times told their story on March 7, 1999 -- how Larry and Carol scoured the Internet to learn of a revolutionary sperm-cleansing technique in Italy, how they endured endless hardships to find a U.S. doctor to administer the unsanctioned procedure.

But the story wasn't only about Larry and Carol. It was about their bubbly 1-year-old, Ashley Taylor Madeiros, born healthy in 1998 thanks to the method that also kept Carol safe from HIV. Larry and Carol had become the first identified HIV-discordant couple in the United States to successfully employ the technique.

Taylor is about to turn 1, and Ashley is 3. Though their father is HIV-positive, both children were born free of the virus.

So what is new with the Madeiros family, a year and a half later?

For starters, there is a new miracle baby.

Last Nov. 10, Taylor Andrew Madeiros was born, thanks to the same procedure. His first birthday is just over a week away, and Taylor is a healthy, rambunctious playmate for 3-year-old Ashley. The parents' world is filled with countless joys -- raising children they fought so hard to have, new careers helping others, a return to their roots in the scenic Adirondack mountains.

The Madeiroses moved from Lake Worth back to their native upstate New York to be closer to family. The couple moved into a log home they owned by the Great Sacandaga Lake, and a permanent dream home on a nearby mountainside is under construction.

The Madeiroses' successful quest to create a family has continued to gain attention. Five days before Taylor was born, Dateline NBC aired a segment about them. Their story has been told from the Washington Post to the Montel Williams Show. The program was devoted to medical miracles. "When Ashley and Taylor joined us at the end on the set, the audience just went crazy, cheering and clapping," says Carol.

These days, she juggles motherhood with her career as a hospital rep for Abbott Laboratories, for whom she worked in Florida. She is spending much of her time marketing a promising new protease inhibitor, vital in controlling HIV.

Larry's health continues to be good, aided by a daily regimen of two dozen pills to keep the virus in check and "factor" products to help his blood clot. While in Florida, he worked for a support organization for hemophiliacs. After moving to New York, he went to work for a similar group on the national level.

But Larry longed for a different challenge that would allow him to make even more of a difference. It fell into place earlier this year when he was introduced to a fellow hemophiliac who was HIV-positive. The man's cousin had read about the Madeiroses and thought Larry could help him. He did, steering the man, a pharmacist, to the South Florida doctor who had helped save Larry's life.

Larry and the man have since founded a not-for-profit pharmacy dealing with critical "factor" products and a non-profit foundation called Positudes (short for positive attitudes) that provides financial assistance to groups dedicated to helping individuals with any number of potentially life-threatening chronic conditions.

Meanwhile, Larry and Carol continue to offer advice and support to other HIV-discordant couples. The sperm-cleansing technique has become increasingly commonplace since Larry and Carol went public with their story. Larry estimates that 200 couples nationwide have used or are using the method, and nearly a dozen births have resulted so far in one New York clinic alone.

"When you look at virally compromised individuals, you're talking thousands and thousands of potential couples," Larry says. "The question is, do you take away from these people one of the greatest gifts and responsibilities they could ever have -- that of being parents?"

The Madeiroses need only look at their children to know the answer. On the hill where they are building their new house, they have renamed one private road Ashley Way, and the side street to their home Taylor Court.

"This is going to be a house that we can just call our own completely," says Larry. "Taylor can play with his tricycle for the first time, and Ashley can draw on the wall and we'll never erase it. It'll be a place all of us can grow up in and grow old together."

For information relating to HIV discordant couples, hemophilia or any issues in this story, call (866) 767-4883 or e-mail: positudes2000@aol.com.

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