Cape County Boy Needs Bone Marrow Transplant

Seated in his high chair, 10-month-old Isaac Grebenick plays with his food even as he fights for his life. The Allenville, Mo., boy has a rare blood disorder that attacks his vital organs. He needs a bone marrow transplant.

Isaac suffers from HLH, a condition in which certain white blood cells build up in the body's organs such as the liver and spleen, causing severe swelling and fever.

Isaac's condition first surfaced in January. "He had started running a fever and having diarrhea. I just thought he was cutting a tooth," says his mother, Kaylee Kohler.

She and the boy's father, Teddie Grebenick Jr., ended up taking him to a St. Louis hospital after his breathing accelerated and his vital organs began shutting down. "His whole body was swollen to twice its normal size," she remembers.

Doctors sought to pinpoint the problem. "At first, they couldn't figure out what was wrong with him,' recalls Kaylee. "It took a week to diagnose him."

Isaac spent two weeks in the hospital. Teddie says his son was given a blood transfusion and then started receiving chemotherapy treatments.

Isaac received weekly chemotherapy treatments for eight weeks. He still receives chemotherapy, but now the treatment occurs once every two weeks. Kaylee says doctors hope to complete the series of chemo treatments by June.

Meanwhile, Isaac receives nine different medications including steroids to ease the effects of chemotherapy and prevent him from contracting common infections which would cause his body to swell and his organs to shut down again.

But chemotherapy won't cure Isaac's condition. A bone marrow transplant offers the only cure, and even that's not a certainty. "If he gets a good match, he has a 75 percent chance of living," Kaylee says.

Isaac has been on the national list of those needing bone marrow transplants for five weeks. But finding a bone marrow match is difficult. Neither Kaylee nor Teddie can provide suitable bone marrow. Isaac's HLH condition was inherited from defective genes, Kaylee explains.

Kaylee and Teddie hope that an upcoming bone marrow registry drive at Southeast Hospital might help her son and others with blood disorder disease. "Not only could you save Isaac's life, but you could save another person's life," Kaylee says.

Want to help?

Call 573-334-8268 to learn more about a bone marrow registry drive, scheduled for Friday, March 30, at Southeast Hospital.