Name: Boston George
Age and Date of Diagnosis: 2 months old October of 2020
Diagnosis: Primary HLH
Location of Treatment: Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada
Child’s Interests:
"Bo is obsessed with his shoes. He loves wearing them all over the house and practicing taking them off and putting them on. He loves to laugh and play wheels on the bus songs and if you’re happy and you know it. Boston loves farm animal sounds, especially ducks. His favorite show is Sesame street and Elmo is his buddy."
"Boston had a fever when he was 2 months old with no other signs of illness. We brought him to the ER immediately due to his age, they did blood work and that’s when we found out all his CBC counts were low. Within days, Boston’s liver and spleen enlarged, he was retaining fluids and his skin turned yellow. He required oxygen, and multiple transfusions of blood, platelets and plasma. He was quickly diagnosed with primary HLH after tests and meeting all the criteria and started on the HLH protocol.
Boston did not have a match for transplant, and due to COVID we chose to do a virtual stem cell donation drive. Boston’s search for a donor went viral on the internet and his story was shared all over the world. Our prime minister Justin Trudeau, famous actors Mark Ruffalo and Dan Levy even shared Bostons plea for a match. We were so thankful for so many people getting swabbed after the drive but unfortunately Boston still did not get his match. The doctors decided to use his moms stem cells and do a half match stem cell transplant. His recovery has been slow and mostly uneventful. He has mild graft vs host disease and is on Tacrolimus to keep it under control. He also has had a very slow immune recovery due to the half match transplant (It is T cell depleted) but he is and has maintained a 100% chimerism!!
Boston is now almost 1.5 years post transplant and enjoying every day! He has recently come out of quarantine from transplant and also even battled a mild case of COVID and did great! He is enjoying spending time with his big sister and loves seeing his cousins and friends in person!"
