Fire dept. gives boy battling rare genetic disease a proper send off following bone marrow transplant

MINNEAPOLIS -- Minneapolis finest are celebrating their new friend, a little boy from Baltimore, as he heads home. Doctors at Masonic Children's Hospital have been treating Joey Brocato for a rare genetic disease.

Since July 2021, Joey's been fighting a rare genetic disease called adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD). He's been stuck inside for more than a month.

"For Joey's condition, it affects the brain. And for reasons we don't understand, you start losing the covering of the nerves in your brain," Dr. Troy Lund said.

While there is no cure, the disease's progress can be completely stopped with a bone marrow transplant, which Brocato just underwent.

"These kids go on to develop normal lives. They can have normal life spans and normal IQ, be everything they were meant to be," Lund said.

Brocato's future may include being a firefighter, just like his dad. Throughout the treatment process, both father and son connected with a local station.

"The guys at Station 7 just have been awesome. They've been very supportive," father Tony Brocato said. "They stop by the hospital and they'll throw the ladder to the window and wave to Joey and brighten up the mood, especially on the days where it's really rough."

As Joey Brocato prepares to leave the hospital, the firefighters stopped by one more time to say goodbye, and for his family, a chance to once again say thank you.

Doctors say fewer than one in 17,000 children are diagnosed with ALD, most of them boys. It's now part of newborn screenings, so more cases are being caught -- and treated earlier -- than ever.