INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A Bloomington teen has become the first pediatric patient in the world to receive a successful bone marrow transplant from a deceased donor, physicians at Riley Health say. Fourteen-year-old Noah Britt is looking forward to his next challenging chapter of life: Online high school this fall. While high school is a big obstacle, he has already overcome much bigger ones. Noah was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in August 2025. According to Riley Children’s Hospital, Noah’s leukemia didn’t respond well to treatment, leading his doctors to determine a transplant would give him the best chance at survival. IU Health says more than 18,000 Americans — including approximately 4,000 children — are diagnosed with blood cancers that may require a bone marrow transplant to survive. For patients with aggressive leukemia, the disease destroys the bone marrow’s ability to produce healthy blood cells, making timely treatment critical. Traditionally, stem cells are collected from a living compatible donor, typically a family member or a match identified through a national registry. Dr. Jodi Skiles, medical director of Riley Children’s pediatric stem cell transplant program, says finding a way to help Noah was a race against time. Noah received his first transplant in January, though it unfortunately failed. After that, doctors say he had no other living matches for a donor. Despite this, Riley says they refused to give up, and sought a transplant through the HOPE Program. HOPE is an expanded-access program stemming from a clinical trial for “off-the-shelf” bone marrow transplants. The program provides cryopreserved marrow to patients ages 12 to 80 in need of a transplant but who lack a suitable donor match. Riley says traditional donor searches can take months, and some patients never get a suitable match. Noah received his second transplant – the transplant taken from a deceased donor – in February. He is now in remission and follows up with his oncology team regularly. “Because those stem cells are banked and ready to use, we were able to act in days instead of months,” Dr. Skiles said. “This treatment has the potential to dramatically expand access to transplant for children who previously had few or no remaining treatment options, giving us a way to close critical gaps in care and offer hope to families facing impossible circumstances.” So far, only 28 patients in the world have received transplants from a dead donor. Riley Health says patients could begin producing healthy blood cells in as little as 17 days. Noah’s story was featured on Riley Children’s Health here. ...read more read less