Baby to Leave Hospital After Rare Transplant

Doctors at UCLA Medical Center say they plan to release Blayke LaRue, the Oxnard baby who underwent an innovative life-saving blood cell transplant last month, from the Westwood hospital this morning.

“We’re very pleased,” said pediatrician Dr. E. Richard Stiehm.

The 9-month-old baby has a rare immune system disease that usually kills its victims before the age of 10. But doctors say Blayke now has a strong chance of survival, thanks to a new transplant procedure using placental blood.

In February, doctors killed the baby’s immune system using chemotherapy, then replaced it with blood from an umbilical cord. Since then Blayke has successfully fought off a series of fevers and bouts of a graft-versus-host disease, where the body rejects the foreign material inside it. Tests have shown that the donor cells are growing and, doctors hope, creating a new immune system for the boy.

“It’s kind of like starting over,” Stiehm said. “It’s like being born again.”

There is still a chance that Blayke’s own compromised immune system might regenerate, but doctors say the outlook is good.

Blayke and his family won’t be able to move home to Oxnard just yet. His mother, Theresa, father, Scott, and two brothers, one of whom also has the disease, are living in an apartment near the hospital. The family will continue to stay there while Blayke makes several trips a week to the hospital for checkups.

Two donors have been found for Blayke’s older brother, Garrett, but the family plans to wait until Blayke is completely better before beginning the transplant process with the 3-year-old.