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Girl To Tell Story For Telethon

Tribune photo by KELVIN MA

Hannah Ryan, 11, with her mother, Kim, will be one of the stars of this year's All Children's Hospital Telethon.

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By WALT BELCHER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 30, 2008

PALMETTO - Hannah Ryan's medical nightmare began after a softball game nearly two years ago.

During the final round of a tournament, Hannah, now 11, had what appeared to be a "small cold."

"She's always been a tough competitor and she had not been feeling well all week, but she wasn't going to let a cold stop her," said her mother, Kim Ryan.

But before the second game, she was feeling so bad that her parents took her home. During the night, she started vomiting every 40 minutes.

Ryan said that by early morning Hannah's fever was rising and she was taken to a small hospital in Manatee County, where doctors diagnosed the beginning of pneumonia in one lung.

Within hours, the pneumonia had spread to both lungs and Hannah couldn't breathe.

She was transported to All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, where she would spend 12 weeks being treated for MRSA, or methycillin resistant staph auereus, a bacterial infection that can be fatal.

"She was out for most of it, unconscious, and she doesn't remember much of what happened," said Ryan, who stayed by her daughter's side during the ordeal and for the intense rehabilitation therapy that followed.

"She spent two weeks at Tampa General where she had to learn to walk and talk and eat and hold her head up all over again," said Ryan.

Sharing Knowledge About Virus

Ryan said that she knew very little about MRSA before Hannah's illness and that the family now is trying to educate others about it. The Ryans were instrumental in getting Buffalo Creek Middle School to install hand sanitizers throughout the school grounds.

The Ryans would like for all Manatee County schools to add hand sanitizers to help protect children and staff from MRSA, which has been a relatively rare infection but appears to be increasing.

Hannah, now a student at Buffalo Creek Middle School, is still on medication and taking breathing treatments twice daily, but she's back on the softball field.

"We just finished a season, and I can't wait until we start back in September," Hannah said.

Hannah's story will be featured Sunday on WFLA, Channel 8, during the 25th annual All Children's Hospital Telethon, which begins at 8:30 p.m. Saturday and ends at 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Several WFLA anchors will take shifts hosting the local portion of the telethon.

Since 1984, the News Channel 8 telethon has raised more than $62 million for the hospital, which serves children from across the state.

Hospital officials say the money has been used to help build intensive-care units, patient wings and outreach facilities in eight counties.

Hannah and her parents, Kim and Scott Ryan, will be at the hospital's Education and Conference Center Auditorium, where the telethon originates.

"Her story is going to be at 4:15 p.m. Sunday, and we want to be there because All Children's is the best," Ryan said. "If it wasn't for them, she might not be here. Not only do they know what they are doing there but it takes a special type of person to care for children, and they've got a lot of them."

A 'Miracle' Recovery

In the telethon feature, the doctors who treated Hannah recall her "miracle" recovery.

All Children's pediatrics doctor David Cooper says Hannah was put on a special ventilator called an oscillator and given medications to help her lungs work more efficiently. She also had to be put on extracorporeal support, or ECMO, a procedure that takes blood out of the body, adds oxygen, and puts it back in the body.

Lisa Moore, the hospital's Advanced Medical Therapies Coordinator, says patients are usually on ECMO about seven to 10 days, or two weeks at most.

"Hannah was on for 30 days. So she was our longest running patient on ECMO in the history of All Children's, quite a miracle."

The All Children's Hospital Telethon will be on WFLA-TV from 8:30 p.m. Saturday to 6:30 p.m. Sunday Reporter Walt Belcher can be reached at (813) 259-7654 or wbelcher@tampatrib.com. The All Children's Hospital Telethon will be on WFLA-TV from 8:30 p.m. Sa

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