BEAVER — As the print on the Drinnons’ wall reads: “Every family has a story. Welcome to ours.”
You’re about to read what makes them different than almost every other family in the world.
Sam and Dave Drinnon’s second pregnancy was going along as planned. The couple from Beaver, Pennsylvania, was excited for their daughter, Averi, to have a sibling. But when Sam Drinnon had a second ultrasound last year to look at baby Rylan’s development, doctors saw a rare, cancerous tumor growing on her unborn baby’s heart.
“It was a lot to take in because there was just so much uncertainty that was going on through our heads,” said Dave Drinnon. “We never knew something like this could happen to us.”
Their doctor referred them to the Cleveland Clinic, where they met 16 people who would become lifesavers for their precious child. Dr. Darrell Cass led the team.
“This tumor was obstructing the blood flow, it was growing rapidly, and essentially it was killing little Rylan,” said Cass, director of fetal surgery and of the Fetal Care Center at the Cleveland Clinic.
Doctors gave the Drinnons four options, the final one being fetal open heart surgery.
“You have to dumb this down for me,” said Dave Drinnon. “You’re telling me you’re going to do what on him?”
This type of surgery had previously been done once successfully in the world. With evidence of the tumor growing in just two days, the Drinnons chose option four.
At 26 weeks, Sam and Rylan Drinnon went in for surgery.
Cass describes what his team at the Cleveland Clinic did:
“We basically made a C-section-type incision on the mom, and we then exposed the uterus. We opened the uterus carefully. Then we brought Rylan’s two arms out of the uterus. Dr. Najm (part of Rylan’s surgery team) placed an IV in his hand that allowed us to give him some medications and some fluids. Then Dr. Najm and our heart surgery team opened his chest, and we saw this dramatic tumor that was literally the same size as Rylan’s whole heart. Then Dr. Najm expertly peeled the tumor off of the heart.”
“When he pulled that tumor off the left side of his heart, the left side of his heart ballooned up and performed amazingly: it filled up with blood, started pumping correctly,” said Dave Drinnon, encouraged.
Doctors then closed both Rylan and Sam Drinnon back up.
“This is a complicated surgery on a fetus that was quite sick, but the best place for him to recover was inside of the womb,” said Cass.
Post-surgery, the first thing that Drinnon asked was: “Is he still inside of me? Once I got that news, so much stress came off of me.”
But she still had to carry Rylan another 10 weeks before he’d be born.
On July 13, 2021, Dave Drinnon said that, “When he came out, he screamed! He was like, ‘Hey, I’m here. Everything is going to be fine, Mom and Dad. I got this. We’re good.’”
“I don’t know of many people that could have gone through this with as much grace,” said Cass. “They always kept their sense of humor throughout the whole process.”
Drinnin put up a Terrible Towel in Rylan’s room at the Cleveland Clinic so everybody knew when they walked by that he was the Pittsburgh baby.
While staying at the Ronald McDonald House in Cleveland, the Drinnons found a piece of home: a tiny Pittsburgh Penguins player stuffed animal that was free for the taking for any family staying there.
“It was just a sign from up in Cleveland that they were thinking of us,” said Dave Drinnon.
Back home in Beaver, the Drinnons have gotten to enjoy Rylan’s infectious smile for six months now.
“He’s been so good. He’s enjoying being a regular baby,” said Sam Drinnon.
A baby with an incredibly unique start.
His parents plan to save all the stories done on Rylan to show him once he’s old enough.
“Tell him, ‘Listen, this is what you went through. A lot of kids are going to go through a lot of things, but you’ve already been battle tested,’” said Dave Drinnon.
The proof is the scar on Rylan’s tiny chest. And the success is thanks to the doctors at the Cleveland Clinic who performed this amazing surgery in one of the first chapters in Rylan’s story.
“We are eternally grateful for you,” said Sam Drinnon.
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