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Three-year-old Declan Thomas has already endured as much in the operating room as anyone does in their entire life. Declan has undergone many operations, tests and procedures, including being anesthetized 16 times. His many procedures include CT scans, multiple echoes, open-heart surgery, a trach placement, g-tube placement, X-rays, therapies, IVs, medicines and more.

Declan will be honored Friday, April 18 as the INTEGRIS Health “Home Run For Life” series opens for the 2025 Oklahoma City Comets baseball season at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. “Home Run For Life” recognizes individuals in the Oklahoma City community who have overcome a significant medical event with the help of their families, physicians and health care professionals. To symbolize the end of their battle against adversity, honorees take a home run “lap” around the bases during an in-game ceremony.

Declan’s Story

During Declan’s open-heart surgery at another hospital at the early age of six weeks, he sustained a vocal cord injury that resulted in Declan coming home with a tracheostomy and a g-tube. “We came home from this operation with a baby and a ton of equipment without a lot of guidance and figuring it out as we went along,” Annelyse Thomas, Declan’s mother, said. 

After coming home, many of their friends recommended that they go to see German Digoy, M.D., a pediatric otolaryngologist at INTEGRIS Health as well as other specialists within the INTEGRIS Health system. “That was our first experience with INTEGRIS Health, and we haven’t been anywhere else since,” Annelyse said.

Because of Dr. Digoy, who has been there to help Declan along his journey, Declan is now able to run around and be the three-year-old kid his family all knows and loves.

The Thomas family says they experienced top-notch care from the full INTEGRIS Health team. “We love INTEGRIS. We love all of the team there, and we’ve had an amazing experience there,” Annelyse said. “The entire team is great from when you check-in, to the child-life specialists who help prepare them for surgery, it has been an amazing experience.”

Beads of Hope

Another critical component of Declan's journey has been Beads of Courage, a program at INTEGRIS Health Children’s dedicated to honoring children who undergo medical challenges. In this program, children are gifted beads as a symbol of their bravery and courage, with each medical procedure they undergo having a correlating bead.

Annelyse strung the beads together last summer from all of Declan’s procedures, totaling more than 15 feet of beads. While shocked at the physical representation of all he has been through, she is proud to be able to document all that he has been through as he grows up.

Brighter Days

One of the most recent procedures he underwent was the closure of his stoma in December 2024. “Ever since the procedure, he has been a full-blown three-year-old,” his father Keith Thomas said.

Declan recently celebrated his third birthday. Such milestones help mark an emotional ending to a long journey for Declan, his parents and his siblings, who all had to adjust their lives along the way.

Moving forward, and with continued follow-ups with doctors on the calendar, the Thomas family is incredibly excited for a lot of dance parties and fun in the year ahead.

Whether that is swimming or participating in gymnastics alongside his siblings, Declan can finally do the “normal kid things” he had been unable to experience previously. “There was so much we couldn’t do last year,” Keith said. “There is a lot to look forward to this year, so this is going to be a big year for us.”