{"id":113315,"date":"2019-02-13T09:22:27","date_gmt":"2019-02-13T14:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=113315"},"modified":"2019-02-14T01:56:23","modified_gmt":"2019-02-14T06:56:23","slug":"vw-teenager-remains-upbeat-even-after-42-surgeries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2019\/02\/13\/vw-teenager-remains-upbeat-even-after-42-surgeries\/","title":{"rendered":"VW teenager still upbeat after 42 surgeries"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DAVE MOSIER\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Noah Wyatt has had plenty of health challenges in his 16 years. Born with spina bifida, a congenital condition that results in the incomplete closing of the backbone and membranes around the spinal cord, leading to defects in the spinal cord and bones of the spine, the teenager has had more than 40 surgeries, with the first coming a day after he was born and the 42nd this past week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Noah Wyatt can still give a \u201cthumbs up\u201d gesture after undergoing more than 40 surgeries and medical procedures.<\/strong> photo provided<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Spina bifida can result in a number of health problems for those who suffer from the disorder. In Noah\u2019s case, he is paralyzed from the armpits down, while his vocal cords are also paralyzed. However, the biggest challenge for the wheelchair-bound teenager is hydrocephalus, a condition where excessive fluid accumulates in the brain, causing increased pressure on the skull. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Approximately 25 of Noah\u2019s 42 surgeries have been brain surgeries to deal with the hydrocephalus, said Noah\u2019s father, Stuart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just last year, Noah spent 3\u00bd months at Cincinnati Children\u2019s Hospital from July through October for a series of 10 surgeries needed to deal with medical issues related to his spina bifida. He has also had to deal with losing his ability to swallow and having to be force-fed through a tube in his nose (that problem has been corrected through surgery), as well as having a tracheal tube in his throat for a number of years before it, too, could be removed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s awfully brave, he\u2019s awfully good about it,\u201d Stuart Wyatt said, while adding the days can get really long, though, waiting for doctors to come in to see him. \u201cHe handles it better than Mom and Dad; he\u2019s quite a trooper.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This last stay in the hospital for harder than normal for Noah, his dad said, because he was wanting to get back to his classes in Ag Diesel Mechanics at Vantage Career Center, where he is a junior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cBefore, when he was missing math and history and English, he wasn\u2019t missing it all that much,\u201d said Stuart Wyatt, \u201cbut now that he\u2019s got to be out of shop he really wants to be back at school in class.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His father added that Noah has been participating as much as possible in the bookwork part of the class through Skype, an interactive communications app, but has had to miss the hands-on portion of the class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The long and many hospital stays also create an added challenge for Noah\u2019s family. When Noah is in the hospital, his father spends Monday through Friday with him, and then his mother spends the weekend at the hospital, while Stuart, who is pastor of Good Shepherd Church of the Nazarene in Van Wert, comes home to lead Sunday worship services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of the many surgeries and hospital stays, Stuart said Noah\u2019s two siblings, Alex, 14, and Lily, 11, have essentially lived in a single-parent household most of their lives, but added that both handle the situation really well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Noah has spent time in all but one of Ohio\u2019s children\u2019s hospitals, Stuart Wyatt especially praised Cincinnati Children\u2019s Hospital, not only for its excellent health care (the hospital is the No. 2 children\u2019s hospital in the country), but also for the friendly and caring staff members there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stuart said the Van Wert County community has also been very supportive of Noah and the family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople of this community have been so generous and kind to us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it would be easy for Noah to be less than positive after all his health challenges and medical procedures, his father said that\u2019s not the case for the teenager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than being down and upset over his health problems, Stuart Wyatt said Noah believes in being upbeat as much as possible, and also helps raise funds for Cincinnati Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe always tries to be positive about it all,\u201d his father said, while also noting that Noah usually handles the challenges better than his parents do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the past, Noah helped raise $7,500 during an earlier fundraiser to purchase Kindle e-book readers for Cincinnati Children\u2019s Hospital patients, and now he is raising funds for programs that support parents and siblings of patients at the hospital. Area residents who want to donate can go to the following link: https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/donate\/387574728669076\/751627941284\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is also selling t-shirts through Northwest Ohio Welch Trophy to raise funds for the hospital. The t-shirts, which include a Superman-style \u201cS\u201d on the front and a list of Noah\u2019s \u201csuper powers\u201d, cost $15, with $6 of the price going to Noah\u2019s charity. That link is https:\/\/supernoahsupporttees2019.itemorder.com\/sale<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor Noah Wyatt has had plenty of health challenges in his 16 years. Born with spina bifida, a congenital condition that results in the incomplete closing of the backbone and membranes around the spinal cord, leading to defects in the spinal cord and bones of the spine, the teenager has had more than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-12 05:40:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113315\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}