For many of those patients, especially minorities, the odds of finding an outside donor have been pretty low. Those odds are starting to change.

Just shy of his second birthday, little Elmor Bonilla has overcome obstacles and odds that most people don't face over a lifetime. Elmor was born with Krabbe Disease, a rare and often fatal disorder that attacks the central nervous system. His best shot at survival is a bone marrow transplant immediately.

"It is critical that those transplantations for inherited metabolic diseases are done early," said Dr. Vinod Prasad, a transplant specialist.

Despite no donor matches in his family, and only a 30-percent chance of finding a match from an unrelated donor, Elmor got his transplant not from bone marrow but from umbilical cord blood. It too contains stem cells that patients need.

Prasad says cord blood can be as good as bone marrow transplantation. Even better, it may be available to more patients because it doesn't require a close match.

A Duke University study found children who received mismatched cord blood from unrelated donors had results similar to those who received unrelated matched bone marrow transplants.

"I would expect and hope that this analysis and analysis of other centers would encourage more transplant physicians to consider mismatch cord blood as a potential source of graft for more and more patients," said Prasad.

Elmor came through the procedure with flying colors and is now ready to tackle being 2! The cord blood used in his transplant came from a public donor bank.

Cord blood is now being used to treat many of the same diseases that require a bone marrow transplant in children and in adults.