Bone-deep brotherly bond on display as North Charleston boy throws first pitch

When 6-year-old Jaxson Foxwell threw the ceremonial first pitch at the April 6 Charleston RiverDogs game, he brought part of his little brother, Brixxton, with him. How? You could say the connection was bone deep. Brixxton donated bone marrow to Jaxson last year to treat the older boy’s rare blood condition, aplastic anemia.

Thanks to that gift, and the care team at MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital, Jaxson is thriving again. “He has so much energy, which is amazing,” his mother, Brittany Foxwell, said.

The appearance at the baseball game, which included a video about Jaxson’s medical journey, was a chance for the family to share its story and its gratitude for Jaxson’s recovery.

 

Foxwell said Jaxson is completely on board with publicizing that information. “He wants to share his story with anyone and everyone. He doesn't want to keep anything from anyone.”

It’s a story that began around September 2023 when Jaxson’s parents noticed that he was starting to get more bruises than might be expected, even for an active little boy. “When we asked about the bruises, he would be like, ‘I'm playing at the playground. With my friends. At daycare.’ So we didn't think anything of it,” Foxwell said.

Then, the bruises caught the attention of his daycare center, which called his parents. At that point, Foxwell took Jaxson to a doctor. The news was not good.

“They let us know his platelets were extremely low, and we had to go straight to the emergency room.” Platelets are cell fragments in the blood that can form clots and stop bleeding. Their low level caused Jaxson’s bruising, a sign of something serious going on inside the little boy.

So Jaxson’s mother took him to the MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital. “I don't really remember too much of that day other than I told my husband he needed to get to the hospital.”

As that day passed in a blur, Jaxson was admitted to the hospital so doctors could figure out what was going on and start his treatment. But hematologist Andrew Picca, DO, a doctor specializing in blood, bleeding and clotting disorders, said pinpointing what was making the boy so sick required consultation with doctors in multiple specialties.

 

“Diagnosing aplastic anemia can be tricky because it's a diagnosis of exclusion. This means we have to rule out other possible causes of the symptoms before we can confirm it,” Picca said. Ruling out other possible causes was important because it affected how Jaxson would be treated. 

That’s where precision medicine, also known as personalized medicine, and genetic testing came in. “It's essential to check for any unifying genetic diagnosis. It may influence how we approach therapy or even affect the specifics of a bone marrow transplant or help the bone marrow transplant team tailor the treatment to achieve the best possible outcomes for our patients while minimizing toxicity,” Picca said.

Picca’s colleague, Jennifer Jaroscak, M.D., said bone marrow biopsies helped them reach the conclusion that Jaxson was suffering from aplastic anemia. The marrow is where most blood cells are normally made. “There was just empty space where it should be full of new young blood cells,” Jaroscak said.

 

Once they had their diagnosis – severe aplastic anemia, which meant Jaxson’s bone marrow was empty – they could start the right treatment. That meant answering another important question, Jaxson’s mother said. “Do you go straight to a [bone marrow] transplant, or do you do immunosuppressants? With immunosuppression, there’s a 40% chance of relapse. A bone marrow transplant is more invasive, but there’s a 90% chance it will work.”

Jaroscak said Jaxson was primarily managed with blood and platelet transfusions while he was undergoing diagnostic testing. “And then, we found out that his sibling was a match, and that's the best kind of donor you have, and we moved forward with transplant. And he's done remarkably well. In May, it'll be a year since his transplant,” Jaroscak said.

She explained the life-changing effects of that brother-to-brother donation from Brixxton. “All the blood cells Jaxson makes are from his donor, and his donor cells aren't susceptible to his old immune system destroying them because his donor cells will make new blood- forming cells and a new immune system for Jaxson.”

 

He’s taking immunosuppression medication until May, Jaroscak said, to keep his body from rejecting the donated cells. “Usually, when people wean off of that and their new immune system recovers, he should have normal blood counts the rest of his life. That's our goal.”

Picca, too, has high hopes for Jaxson. “Children are incredibly resilient. It’s amazing how they go through so many procedures, lab tests and treatments, yet you’d never know the challenges they've faced or the hard work they’ve put in alongside their families to get to where they are today. The strength and resilience children show in tough times is truly inspiring, and it’s one of the reasons why we are so passionate about working in this field.”

Jaxson and Brixxton aren’t thinking about resilience. They’re showing what it looks like by playing and wrestling again like they used to. “They fight like crazy, and we tell them, ‘You guys are closer than you think, and y'all are going to really appreciate it one day,’” Foxwell said.