Dylan Riley was playing disc golf with some friends when he tripped on a curb and punctured his right knee. He didn’t think much of it and went about his day. A couple days later, he started not feeling well.
Dylan Riley was playing disc golf with some friends when he tripped on a curb and punctured his right knee. He didn’t think much of it and went about his day. A couple days later, he started not feeling well. “I had a fever, body aches, sweating. I just thought I had the flu,” he remembers. “But then things got bad in a hurry. I lost mobility in my hands and legs. The only thing I could do was turn my head and holler for my roommates to help me and that’s when they called 911.”
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On Nov. 10, 2023, Trina White got the call no parent ever wants to get, that her son was being transported to the hospital in an ambulance. “I got to the emergency room, and they immediately took me back and said, ‘We don’t have time. Do you want to put him on life support or not?’ I remember being confused and saying, ‘I am so sorry, but I believe you have the wrong family.’” Trina knew her son had been ill, but even as a nurse herself, she didn’t think it was serious. “But then I walked around the corner and I saw my son laying there, not the son I knew of course, and my heart sank at that moment.”
The medical staff at INTEGRIS Health Baptist Medical Center recommended that Dylan be put on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, commonly abbreviated as ECMO. It is a lifesaving therapy that provides support to patients whose heart and/or lungs are so severely diseased or damaged that they can no longer serve their function. It is often considered as a “last hope” for patients in critical condition. “They asked me about ECMO and there was no decision there,” Trina says. “I was like this is my son, my baby… Do what you have to do to save him.”
“Come to find out, I had been in contact with somebody who had strep throat and the bacteria from the streptococcal had gotten into my wound and into my bloodstream,” Dylan explains. “Throughout that week of me feeling like I had the flu, thinking I would just get past it, the bacteria invaded my blood system and shut down my heart, my lungs, my kidneys, causing me to be on life support for five days.”
ECMO kept Dylan alive but without oxygenated blood naturally pumping throughout the body, some of his tissue started to die leading to the amputation of both of his legs and portions of both hands.
“Whatever they had to do. Whatever they could save, I was grateful for,” reflects Dylan. His mother agrees, “It’s a blessing that he’s even with us. Every doctor, every surgeon, all the miraculous people that we dealt with at Baptist they’ve all told us that he shouldn’t be here. He’s not supposed to be here but he is. He’s a miracle.”
“It’s literally like in the movies when somebody saves someone and they say I owe you my life, well, this is the real-world version of that,” Dylan declares. He has made it his mission to educate others on the potential danger of the streptococcus bacteria. “It’s just not something you think about. I mean I never once would have put two and two together that I had something this severe.”
He does wonder from time to time, if all of this could have been avoided had he gone to the doctor sooner and been given an antibiotic. But he doesn’t let himself dwell on that. Instead, he chooses to share his story in hopes of saving at least one life. “I’m going to make the most of it. This isn’t the end, but the beginning of a brand-new story.” He continues, “People may look at me a little bit differently, but I’m still me. I believe I’m even a better version of myself.”
INTEGRIS Health was the first in Oklahoma to establish a specialized life support program solely devoted to adult patients facing imminent death. The system has a 24-hour ECMO hotline: 844-436-ECMO (3266). ECMO physicians are available 24/7/365 for consultation with other hospitals and doctors throughout the state. The team is also equipped with a transport vehicle and ECMO machines that can be mobilized to any hospital, regardless of affiliation, to work with other critical care doctors throughout the region. With this lifesaving technology, the INTEGRIS Health ECMO team is providing greater access to care for patients even in the most remote locations.
3300 NW Expressway
Oklahoma City, OK 73112
Phone: 405-939-3349
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