When Zach Lawton ran 45 yards to tackle a Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech opponent just one yard from the goal line, Selinsgrove fans roared their praise. It was a moment his parents would have thought impossible 18 years ago, when their infant son was diagnosed with leukemia.

"I knew something wasn't quite right," Tammy Lawton said, remembering Zachary's slightly enlarged stomach, decreased cooing, and pale skin. Doctors assured her he was fine. She shoved her worries aside, but when a woman commented that her 3 1/2-month-old son looked jaundiced, the uneasiness returned. She headed to the doctor's office, where this time they noticed an enlarged spleen, and did some blood tests.

"The doctor took my hand. He was very compassionate. I knew instantly that it was something bad," Tammy recalled. "He said, I'm 99 percent sure your son has leukemia.'"

Tammy called her husband, Charlie, and her mother, Thelma Nichols, and they rushed Zach to Geisinger Medical Center, in Danville.

"I was just numb," Charlie remembered. "In my mind, when we got to the Geisinger, it would not be as bad we thought." But as soon as they entered, "(The doctors) were standing there, waiting. They just grabbed Zach and, whoosh, through the doors."

Blood replaced

Zach's white blood cell count was 2,000,100 -- a normal count is between 5,000 and 10,000.

Most kids with leukemia have counts between 50,000 and 100,000.

"They were amazed that he didn't have a stroke or a heart attack because his blood was so thick," Tammy said.

"It had an orange tint to it, and it was stringy," Charlie explained.

Certified pediatric oncology nurse Barb Molesevich, remembered seeing Tammy carry Zach into the hospital. "He looked like a limp dish rag," she said. "His white blood count was the highest I've ever seen."

Before doctors could begin chemotherapy they had to do an exchange transfusion -- completely replacing the tiny boy's blood with donor blood.

"It was very risky. He had a heart doctor in there, a kidney doctor, the oncologist," Tammy recalled. "And that's when they told us to call the minister, because they didn't think he'd make it through the night."

"Leukemia is the commonest cancer we treat in children," said Dr. Jeffrey Lobel, associate professor of pediatrics in hematology/oncology, now practicing at the Kalamazoo Center for Medical Studies of Michigan State University. "But leukemia in young infants is a very rare subset of all the kids with leukemia. (Zach) had the highest number of leukemia cells in his circulating blood stream that I've ever seen in over 30 years of experience. I knew that the odds were highly against him." "Dr. Lobel said, If he survives the night -- and that's a very big if -- you can expect kidney problems, spleen damage, major organ damage,'" Charlie recalled.

But after three exchange transfusions in three days, they managed to get Zach's white blood count low enough to begin chemo.