Baby Ryan May Be Released From Hospital ‘The Little Guy’s Just Making Some Steady Progress, Portland Doctor Says

A sick baby Spokane doctors predicted would die may be released from Emanuel Children’s Hospital in Portland as early as this week, said his kidney specialist.

Ten-week-old Ryan Nguyen has made dramatic improvement since being transferred from Sacred Heart Medical Center three weeks ago, said Dr. Randall Jenkins.

He is off dialysis. He is taking one antiepileptic drug instead of three. He’s gaining weight. He may not need a kidney transplant.

“The little guy’s just making some steady progress,” said Jenkins.

Ryan’s next hurdle is eating on his own rather than relying on intravenous feeding, Jenkins said.

“We’re just trying to decide if we want to do his IV nutrition at home or keep him in the hospital,” he said on Friday. “He could go home next week.”

Ryan caught the nation’s attention in December during a court battle between his parents and Sacred Heart, where he was born, six weeks premature, on Oct. 27.

Doctors at Sacred Heart said Ryan suffered severe brain damage and kidney failure and couldn’t live. He also had seizures, a bowel obstruction and low blood volume.

The Spokane doctors maintained treatments to keep him alive were painful as well as futile.

A neonatology expert in Portland agreed that Ryan would die, and doctors in Seattle and Pittsburgh said they also wouldn’t treat the infant.

Dialysis had led to an infection of his stomach lining, which caused periods of severe pain, according to court documents. A ventilator placed in his throat caused gagging.

Drawing blood three times a day to monitor his blood sugar added to his pain, doctors said, and every time he was handled, Ryan suffered tremors that sometimes led to seizures.

The kidney dialysis, which repeatedly pumped his abdomen full of fluids, was so cruel and inhumane that Ryan should be allowed to die, they said.

The baby had “no hope of recovery,” Dr. Hrair A. Garabedian, director of Sacred Heart’s neonatal intensive care unit, said in court records.

Ryan’s parents, Nghia and Darla Nguyen, claimed the hospital was trying to cover a botched birth and save money on his expensive medical care, which is being paid for by Medicaid. They also accused doctors of being racially prejudiced.

Ryan ended up in Portland before the case was settled in court, when a doctor there read a newspaper account of the situation and offered to treat him.

On Friday, Jenkins said he doubts the boy would have died even if he had remained at Sacred Heart.

“His kidneys weren’t permanently damaged and they’d just shut down for a long time,” Jenkins said. “It’s just a late recovery.”

Ryan was removed from a ventilator Dec. 14, a day after his arrival in Portland, and taken off dialysis soon afterward. On Dec. 16, he underwent surgery to remove the intestinal blockage.

Ryan avoided the infections Jenkins feared would follow the surgery, in which a part of his intestines were removed.

A test that injects dye into the intestines recently revealed narrowing where nutrients pass through Ryan’s intestines. “But it does get through,” Jenkins said.

Doctors are watching to make sure the narrowing doesn’t get any worse, and expect Ryan to be slow to eat on his own.

“It will take a little while,” Jenkins said. “Fluid doesn’t seem to move through the intestinal tract at the speed we’d like it to.”

Doctors are also hopeful that brain damage, if any exists, will be minimal.

“It’ll be really months and years before we’ll know if he’ll be of normal intelligence and normal walking and talking,” Jenkins said. “But we’re optimistic he’ll do pretty normal things.”

Ryan’s parents are renting a home in Vancouver, Wash., a 10-minute drive from the hospital, said Russell Van Camp, their attorney.

They frequently visit their son, who sucks on a pacifier, grasps fingers, and appears bothered when other babies cry loud.

The Nguyens plan to eventually return to Spokane, Van Camp said.