Bone Marrow Transplant May Save Baby

For 8-month-old Blayke LaRue, the blood that will be dripped into his veins this morning will be just another tube coming out of him, another obstacle to hamper him from playing and crawling.

But that blood, a mere 2 ounces, could save the baby’s life.

In a bone marrow transplant that doctors at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center say will take no more than 30 minutes, blood extracted from the umbilical cord of another baby will be given to Blayke in the hopes of curing him of a rare genetic disease known as X-linked lymphoproliferative disease, or XLP.

Although UCLA doctors have performed more than 1,800 bone marrow transplants since the hospital established its transplant program, Blayke’s case marks the first time the hospital will use placental blood in the procedure.

Only about 160 transplants using stored blood from umbilical cords have been performed worldwide and never before have doctors tried the procedure on a patient with Blayke’s disease.

XLP leaves its victims unable to fight off infection, and medical experts say most die before their 10th birthday. Only about 300 cases of XLP have been reported since it was discovered in the 1960s.

The LaRue family already has lost one son, Layne, to XLP, and needs to find a bone marrow match for another son, Garrett, who also suffers from the disease. A possible donor for 3-year-old Garrett was found in Finland last week, but more tests must be run to make sure the blood is a match.

Today’s procedure is the climax of a weeks-long crusade by Blayke’s parents, Scott and Theresa LaRue of Oxnard, to encourage people to register as bone marrow donors nationally and to find a lifesaving 1-in-20,000 match for their baby. Blayke’s match was found through the New York Blood Center’s Placental Blood Program.

The family had plenty of help in their efforts from local law enforcement. Firefighters at the Alhambra Fire Department, where Scott LaRue is a paramedic, are covering his shifts. The Los Angeles Police Department, where the baby’s grandfather, Ron LaRue, works as a lieutenant in the North Hollywood Division, has helped organize four donor drives.

On Wednesday, Blayke’s mother, Theresa, weary after a 24-hour shift watching over her son, emerged from his hospital room and turned over the duty to her husband. The little boy, too young to understand the swirl of activity around him, had a difficult night.

“Normally, he’s a happy baby,” she said. “But in here he is irritable.”

Blayke has lost interest in food during the last 10 days because he has been bombarded with an intense dose of chemotherapy designed to kill off his own compromised immune system. He relies on an intravenous drip to get liquids and nutrients.

“He pushes away the bottle,” said pediatrician Madeline Marcus.

Inside the sterile confines of Blayke’s room, Scott LaRue hoists his son high and tries to coax a smile out of the boy. But the baby is uncomfortable and his mouth is riddled with sores, a side effect of the chemotherapy, so smiles are rare. Mostly he saves them for his big brothers, Garrett, and Aaron, 5, Theresa’s child from a previous marriage, who does not suffer from the disease.

“They come by once a day,” Theresa LaRue said. “That is about the only time you see him smile.”

After today’s operation, doctors will watch Blayke for the next three weeks, looking for signs of donor rejection or infection. If the transplant takes hold and begins to generate new healthy blood cells in the baby’s system, doctors say, he should be able to recover.

But if the new cells do not take, Blayke’s life will be in even greater jeopardy because his immune system is nearly depleted.