Before he was born, doctors had no idea that young Dylan would be born with a rare condition known as Congenital Melanocytic Nevus. The boy’s own mother, Kara, was shocked and horrified to see her newborn baby boy when he was born because about eighty percent of his body was covered with black birthmarks. In addition, the newborn baby had melanin deposits in his brain, which caused seizures from the time he was four months old.
Because the rare condition meant that Dylan had a high risk of developing dangerous forms of skin cancer, he had to go under the knife repeatedly for surgeries to help protect his life. Additionally, one mole on the baby’s back was so large that its removal required doctors to transplant skin from another part of the baby’s body.
However, the baby boy did not have enough skin to provide for the surgeries. Instead, doctors put implants in his body, akin to breast implants, and then allowed them to create more skin that they could then take and use for their various surgeries. He carried the implants for three months until enough skin had formed for the doctors to do the work they needed to do.
Dylan underwent twenty-six surgeries as a baby. Thankfully, the doctors were successfully able to remove half of the gigantic mole that was on his back. But they were not able to remove it completely.
Now, Dylan is no longer a little baby. He is a little kid who enjoys playing baseball and going fishing like countless other American children. He also loves – adores even – spending time with his family and friends. He has a positive outlook on life despite the condition that he was born with. And although doctors have put the boy through grueling surgery after grueling surgery, he still has moles on his body that need to be constantly monitored for skin cancer development. If the boy’s moles grow or change, he is supposed to go see a doctor right away.
Dylan looks different from other children. This means that he sometimes has to deal with bullying and harassment. One time, a store manager asked Dylan and his family to leave the store because the boy’s skin condition was upsetting the other customers in the establishment. Fortunately, most people who meet Dylan and learn about his condition accept him for who he is – a little boy who just happens to have a lot of moles on his skin.
Today, Dylan is a nine-year-old boy. He enjoys living his life to the fullest by going fishing and spending time on the baseball diamond with his teammates and friends. Fortunately, the surgeries have been successful. Unfortunately, Dylan has had to spend a lot of his short life in the hospital recovering from going under the knife.
Despite the condition he was born with, Dylan is brave and inspires people with his story of perseverance in the face of adversity.