WALNUT : 3-Year-Old Boy Who Had 2 Marrow Transplants Dies

Ryan Worthington, the three-year-old Walnut boy who suffered from Hurler’s syndrome, a rare metabolic disease, has died in Minneapolis, his family said.

“God wanted him back,” said his mother, Tracy Worthington, who announced that Ryan died Sunday night at the University of Minnesota’s Children’s Hospital.

Ryan had undergone bone marrow transplants at the hospital in August, 1992, and again last January.

During the course of his struggle with the genetically transmitted disease, thousands of people responded to his parents’ campaign, donating blood and money through colleges, churches and other programs. After the National Marrow Donor Program found one man out of thousands whose blood type matched Ryan’s, the man donated marrow for both of the boy’s operations.

Funeral services are scheduled at 2 p.m. today at Christ Church of the Valley in West Covina.

As part of a tribute, the family is requesting that people donate games, puzzles and videos suited for young boys, according to Ryan’s father, Robert Worthington.