U.S. Baby Sparks Italy's First Bone Marrow Drive

March 24, 2007 — -- Alessandro Palermo was watching TV in his home in Riomaggiore on Italy's famous Cinque Terre coast, when the photo of Giovanni caught his eye -- the baby's tiny mouth, big cheeks and bulging blue eyes went right to his heart.

An American baby of Italian/Greek descent was dying, and a desperate search was on for a compatible bone marrow donor who might save his life. Because Giovanni had no direct siblings and time was running out, finding the marrow for the baby was proving difficult.

Palermo recalled that it was a fleeting item on Italian state television, RAI International, and that it was soon eclipsed by the news of Anna Nicole Smith's death.

"Maybe it was because I was the new father of a 4-month-old baby," he told ABC News. "Maybe it was because of my American connection -- I worked for an American cruise company and have family in the U.S."

Whatever the reason, something about that baby made Palermo sit down and write to Michael Guglielmo, Giovanni's father.

Giovanni Guglielmo was born on July 24, 2006, an apparently healthy baby, to Christina M. Poulicakos and Michael A. Guglielmo of Belmont, N.H.

After a few weeks at home, Giovanni developed a fever, the first sign of what would eventually be diagnosed as a serious immune deficiency disorder known as NEMO that has caused conditions that make his skin terribly dry and make it difficult for him to digest food.

He is being cared for by Children's Hospital in Boston, and his only hope is a DNA-compatible bone marrow transplant.

Although Giovanni's parents have been successful in getting Giovanni's story out and raising awareness and widespread support in the United States, a donor has not yet been found, and Giovanni's decline continues.

"It's terrible. You would gladly lay down your own life for your own child but you don't have the opportunity to do that," Michael Guglielmo wrote on his Web site. "We are doing everything we can."

A recent transplant of compatible umbilical blood stem cells is hoped to improve his immune system, but Giovanni still needs a bone marrow transplant to survive.