4-year-old Auburn Boy with Rare Syndrome Seeks Match for Bone Marrow Transplant

Four-year-old Bryce is a fun kid who loves sports and animals.
“A spunky little firecracker,” his mom calls him.
But in January, after many health scares, doctors discovered the Auburn boy has a rare syndrome called Hyper-IgM.
Mom, Julie Creedon Linton said, “He really just doesn’t have an immune system. His body makes a lot of the igMs which just go around your body, They don’t make any special forces that attack the viruses or bacteria.”
Creedon-Linton says people with the syndrome don’t tend to live past their 20s or 30s.
Right now, Bryce receives blood plasma transfusions every other week, but he could be cured with a bone marrow transplant by the time he turns eight.
“But there’s no guarantee we will find a donor in four years,” Creedon-Linton says.
The coronavirus is impacting both bone marrow and blood plasma donations. Nonprofit Be the Match is turning to at-home test kits to keep their numbers up.
Community engagement supervisor for the Rhode Island Blood Center Be the Match team, Ann Evans, said, “We are missing the opportunities to be in person at places we normally would be under normal circumstances.”

We will have Be the Match at our Webster PD blood drive on 7/1 9a-2p and Auburn Fire Dept drive 7/2 3p-7p. Please come down or visit bethematch.org to order a kit to be sent to your home!

In 1995, my mother had an aortic aneurism burst while she was prepping for heart surgery to repair a valve on her heart. She was otherwise healthy, however, our family is predisposed to this condition and she had lost her own mother to the same disorder.
I was a junior in high school and my family called me out of school to rush to Boston to be with my family. My mother was in surgery for 13 hours, was revived 3 times and required 42 pints of blood. Remarkably, she lived for another 10 healthy happy years. My father was able to donate, but that was only 2 pints of that 42 that was needed.

I try to keep up with regular donations, because someone will always be in need. Right now there is an ever present need due to Covid-19. Please give if you are able. If you cannot please share.