CELL TRANSPLANT REVIVES HOPE IN ILL BOY, FAMILY.

Byline: Stacy Finz Daily News Staff Writer

Nearly eight weeks ago, Garrett LaRue went into the UCLA Medical Center with hopes that doctors could save him from the same disease that killed one brother and nearly took the life of another.

It is an affliction so rare that it has struck only 200 or so people in the world.

On Tuesday, the 4-1/2-year-old Oxnard youngster rolled through the hospital doors on his Big Wheel tricycle, looking mighty pleased to be a little boy again - not a patient.

The plight of the LaRue family prompted a tremendous outpouring of prospective bone marrow donors from across the San Fernando Valley, championed by the boy's grandfather, Los Angeles police Lt. Ron LaRue. In the end, they chose another procedure that uses donated umbilical cord blood cells.

And now not only does Garrett appear to be on the way to recovery, but doctors say that his younger brother, Blayke, also seems to have overcome X-linked lymphoproliferative disease, which can cripple the body's immune system.

Garrett's transplant was just the fourth done at the University of California, at Los Angeles, hospital, doctors said.

``We were really surprised with his success,'' said his mother, Theresa LaRue. ``We had a tough time with Blayke, so we didn't know what to expect.''

On Tuesday, Garrett left the center with a wide grin on his face and a UCLA baseball cap covering his hairless head, bald from chemotherapy.

``He wants macaroni and cheese and to ride his bike,'' his mother said. ``It's been so long since we've had a our family back together.''

Without the transplant, Dr. Kathleen Sakamoto, Garrett's physician, predicted that the toddler would not have lived past 10.

It was two years ago that the LaRues found themselves faced with not one sick boy, but three. Their 13-month-old son, Layne, fell ill with what appeared to be a common cold. Two weeks later he was dead.

At first doctors were stumped, but then a battery of tests detected what they had feared: Layne had suffered from a rare immune system disorder.

Only a couple of hundred people in the world have suffered from the genetic disorder, which is passed on to males from the mother's X chromosome, said Sakamoto.

Soon the LaRues would have to endure the shock that two of their three living sons also had the disease.

``We thought we had four healthy children,'' Theresa LaRue said.

Since then they've spent their lives in and out of the medical center, first with 2-year-old Blayke, who received a successful umbilical cord blood transplant last year.

In January, they found another match of umbilical cord blood for Garrett. Sakamoto said finding the right donors was not difficult.

``Part of the (ease) was the boy's background and part of it was luck,'' she said. ``Their tissue types are fairly common.''

Bone marrow or umbilical cord blood transplants are the only cures for the disease. Doctors also found bone marrow matches for the boys, but their parents opted to go with the umbilical cord blood transplant because preliminary studies show that there are fewer complications, Sakamoto said.

Before performing the transplant, doctors gave Garrett chemotherapy over a week to clean his body of the diseased cells and make room for healthy ones.

Then, the umbilical cord blood was given as a transfusion.

Garrett's transplant was successful, but it could take up to a year to determine whether his immune system will gain strength and continue to fight off germs, Sakamoto said.

At this point he has the immune system of an infant, she said.

The ordeal has left the LaRue family with a new appreciation for life. ``Fortunately through all this, we've become a lot more spiritual,'' Theresa LaRue said.

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PHOTO (color) Scott La Rue, helps his son, Garrett, 4, leave the UCLA Medical Center on Tuesday.

Evan Yee/Daily News