January 21, 2008 VT man fights for his son's life Play video

(NECN) - Michael Guglielmo's 17-month-old son, Giovanni, has spent much of his infancy in the hospital suffering from a rare condition called Nemo.

Nemo, is a chromosomal disorder that can severely compromise a person's body functions, including one's immune system.

Giovanni is one of only a dozen in the U.S. with the disease.

He needed a bone marrow transplant within his first year of life in order to survive and the odds of finding a donor were very low.

Michael launched a massive effort to get more people onto the bone marrow registry and in that pool of potential donors was a match for Giovanni.

NECN's Anya Huneke has more.