Armstrong County boy with 2 rare blood disorders gets special police escort home from hospital

EAST FRANKLIN, Pa. (KDKA) -- A 6-year-old boy with two rare blood disorders got a special escort back home after a 40-day stay in the hospital. 

River Schaeffer is fighting two incredibly rare blood diseases but was released from the hospital on Tuesday afternoon after a long stay. 

River was already an honorary police officer with the Manor Township Police Department, and when Chief Christopher Robbins heard River was finally coming home, he organized more police and fire departments to give River an official escort to his home in East Franklin, Armstrong County.

"River was born with factor VII deficiency and glanzmann thrombasthenia. He's the only one in the world with both of those disorders," his mom Lauren Young said. "So it's a lot of, 'will this work, will this work, will this work?'"  

When River was released from the hospital, Chief Robbins wanted to get as many emergency vehicles as possible to pick him up on Route 28 near the Freeport exit and bring him home to his house in East Franklin. 

"There's a lot of moving parts to something like this and I undertook this in my own personal time and it was something I had to see it through because it was the right thing to do," Robbins said. 

More than 30 fire and police departments showed up on Tuesday in support of River. His family says they can't thank the chief or the first responders enough for making this happen for River.

"There were departments here from 20 minutes away that came to do this for River, so I can't thank all of them enough," Young said.