Created: 12/10/2004 11:49:57 PM 
By Alan Gionet
JACKSONVILLE, FL -- The news is very good for little Kaitlyn Ries. One year after her release from a hospital in Minnesota, the lifesaving transplant to help her beat a rare genetic disorder is a success.
Kaitlyn has Hurler Syndrome. It meant she needed to have intense drug treatments to kill her bone marrow and then have it replaced. The new marrow is helping her body make an enzyme needed to break down sugars in her body. Without it, her internal organs will eventually be attacked by those sugars. She will suffer learning disabilities. She could die an early death. That's what her parents were told after her birth 20 months ago. Now, Kaitlyn's transplant is taking. Her body is producing the enzyme. She is developing as a normal, bright, active, curly haired little girl. "She's doing everything age appropriate and we just couldn't be happier," says her mother Susan. "We're just tickled that she's doing so well." Her family is well acquainted with Hurler Syndrome. As rare as it is, her older brother Tommy has it. It wasn't discovered as early in Tommy. Tommy's transplant has not been as successful. He has a learning disability and is likely to have more health problems ahead. The family is still looking at mounting medical bills. There's a poker run Saturday, to help benefit the Ries Foundation. Susan Ries says, "It's so overwhelming the support we get from strangers." The event starts at Buffalo's Southwest Cafe on Youngerman Circle in the Argyle Shopping Center in Orange Park at noon and goes until four. Sign-up starts at 10 a.m. Everyone is invited. You can take a motorcycle or a car.
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