Baby Leaves Hospital After Cell Transplant

After nearly two months in a sterile hospital room, Blayke LaRue, the Oxnard baby who underwent an innovative life-saving blood cell transplant in February, left UCLA Medical Center in Westwood Thursday morning with his parents and two brothers.

The 9-month-old baby has a rare disease which destroys the immune system and usually kills its victims before the age of 10.

Performing a new procedure for the first time, UCLA doctors killed off the baby’s compromised immune system in February using chemotherapy and replaced it with blood cells extracted from another baby’s umbilical cord. Those cells appear to be reproducing, and doctors said Blayke now has a strong chance of survival.

His father, Scott, said Blayke was fairly subdued--until he was carried into the apartment the LaRue family has been staying in near the hospital.

“He had an ear-to-ear smile,” LaRue said.

The family hopes to return to Oxnard in the coming weeks, but will remain close to UCLA for now so that doctors can monitor Blayke’s progress.

Blayke’s brothers--Garrett, 3, and Aaron, 5-- “wore [Blayke] out playing,” said Blayke’s father. Garrett also has the same disease as Blayke and will have a transplant soon, but Aaron is not affected.

After playing, Scott LaRue put Blayke down for a nap and Garrett laid down next to him.

“Usually you couldn’t pay [Garrett] to take a nap in the middle of the day,” Scott said. “That was pretty much out of the ordinary for him.”