WALNUT : Boy With Rare Disorder to Get Marrow Transplant

Ryan Worthington, the 23-month-old Walnut boy with the rare and irreversible metabolic disorder Hurler’s syndrome, is headed to Minnesota to receive an infusion of healthy bone marrow from an anonymous donor.

If untreated, Hurler’s causes bone and skeletal malformations and mental retardation and is usually fatal by the age of 7 to 10. But if a victim undergoes a successful bone marrow transplant before age 2, there is hope for a normal life, medical experts say.

Ryan’s parents, Robert and Tracy Worthington, lost another child to the disease four years ago and had launched a marrow search for Ryan. The donor was located through the National Marrow Donor Program Registry.

Ryan will begin testing Monday, the transplant is scheduled Aug. 2 and his second birthday is Aug. 17.