A Central Florida boy has saved his brother's life — and he doesn't even realize it yet.

  • Grant Gibbens had T-cell leukemia, rare for toddlers
  • He received bone-marrow transplant from baby brother, Wyatt
  • 2-year-old Grant's leukemia is now in remission

The Gibbens family of Palm Bay arrived at Florida Hospital for Children in Orlando, excited to thank the doctors and nurses. It's been a very tough road, after all.

Last year, 2-year-old Grant started feeling sick, but with nonspecific symptoms similar to a run-of-the-mill virus.

"We had been sick, and we thought he (Grant) had the same thing we had," father John Gibbens said. "He was teething as well. We thought maybe the teething wasn't feeling great."

Then, a week shy of his first birthday, Grant was diagnosed with T-cell leukemia, very rare in toddlers.

Grant went into remission last holiday season. But it came back, and the meetings started with a Florida Hospital transplant team.

"I was seven weeks' pregnant when he was first diagnosed, and we spent most of my pregnancy in the hospital," mother Jessica Gibbens said.

What Jessica Gibbens didn't know that she was pregnant with Grant's life-saver: baby brother Wyatt.

"They took the umbilical cord blood after he was born, and sent it off. It was all known well ahead of time that it was going to, potentially, be needed for this situation," John Gibbens said.

"We sat down with the transplant team. We were told it's a 30 percent chance that it would be a perfect match, which then I thought, "Wait a second — why are we even going through with this?' " Jessica Gibbens said.

It turned out to be a perfect match.

"Having him be a perfect match... It's pretty amazing that we had that opportunity," Jessica Gibbens said.

Now, Grant is getting stronger.

"There's no test that we can do that can find cancer anywhere in his body," Florida Hospital's Dr. David Shook said. "As best as we can tell, his cancer is in remission."

Grant has cousins he hasn't met, because he's had to stay isolated because of his condition. His family hopes to introduce him to them soon. 


Grant Gibbens' leukemia is in remission after receiving a bone-marrow transplant from his baby brother, Wyatt, who was a perfect match to be a donor. (Spectrum News 13)