Dylan was born 14 weeks early.
Her mom, Nicole, was rushed to their local hospital in San Francisco after her amniotic sac ruptured at only 24 weeks into her pregnancy. As a new mom, she could have never anticipated that her sweet little girl would spend the first 125 days of her life in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
Dylan, like many premature infants admitted to the NICU, required feeding tubes and a continuous positive airway pressure machine for the entirety of her stay—leading to severe oral aversion and the necessary placement of a gastronomy tube (g-tube) for supplemental feeding and hydration.
“She really wasn’t making progress with breastfeeding, and would gag on a bottle or pacifier,” Nicole recounts. “I’ll never forget sitting with my husband and saying, ‘We are bringing home a baby who doesn’t know how to eat.’”
To make things worse, severe acid reflux and frequent vomiting quickly exacerbated Dylan’s condition. Nicole, determined to find the best care for her daughter, quickly assembled a team of experts—private occupational therapists, gastrointestinal specialists, and lactation consultants.
For months, Dylan’s parents felt like doctor after doctor kept brushing their biggest concerns aside, and telling them to just wait and see what happens. “I felt like I could do anything as long as I had a team around me, and I certainly was not about to wait and see what happened,” Nicole says. “What I quickly realized is that you need the right team.”
For Dylan and her family, like countless others, that support could only come from the team at Rady Children’s.
Finding a path forward
“It got to a point where I thought, ‘We’ve got to change course. We’ve got to find the best of the best,’” Nicole recalls. “And luckily, the best of the best happened to be in my hometown in Orange County.”
In December 2024, Nicole finally found herself hopeful and encouraged after an evaluation appointment with Dr. Ashish S. Chogle, a pediatric gastroenterologist at Rady Children’s.
“I just felt so much more confident in his direction and his ideas,” Nicole shares. “I felt so seen, heard, understood, and aligned with the Rady Children’s team.”
Dylan started feeding therapy with the specialist team at Rady Children’s in January 2025. Andrea Tierney, part of the neurodevelopmental rehabilitation team, became Dylan’s day-to-day occupational therapist. It’s a common occurrence for patients and families to travel from outside of Orange County—and even the state of California—to gain access to the cutting-edge care at Rady Children’s. And for two months, Nicole flew back and forth from San Francisco to Orange County and would spend four days a week at Rady Children’s with her daughter.
“Andrea held my hand through quite possibly one of the most challenging situations of my life,” Nicole says with tears in her eyes. “She was so patient and just had the magic touch.”
In fact, Nicole was so thrilled by the care Dylan was receiving and the progress she was making, that in March 2025, their family made the move down to Orange County.
“Andrea was like my coach…It just feels like extended family versus medical professionals,” says Nicole.
A smashing success
After another four months of continuous care and feeding therapy with Andrea and the Rady Children’s team, Dylan reached an incredible milestone. On her first birthday, she was able to successfully eat her strawberry smash cake—a popular tradition for this special occasion.
“It felt like when Dylan ate her cake, we won the Super Bowl,” says Nicole.
Now, thanks to expert care, Dylan has been eating and drinking free of her g-tube since September 2025 and is thriving in her new community. According to mom, she currently loves baths, swimming in the pool, playing with dogs, and hanging out with her neighborhood friends at the park.
“She is just the sweetest little thing. She is strong, likable, opinionated…I just can’t wait to introduce her to more and more different types of foods, flavors, eating places while we travel—having those types of experiences,” says Nicole when talking about Dylan’s future. “And I look forward to telling her how strong she is.”
Join us in transforming lives
Every day, families come to Rady Children’s Health Orange County in search of hope and healing. Your generosity can help us transform the lives of patients like Dylan by sustaining our ability to provide critical resources and life-changing treatments to countless children. Philanthropy ensures that Rady Children’s can continue to:
- Retain and attract top talent like Dr. Chogle and Andrea,
- Increase access to cutting-edge pediatric care even beyond Orange County, and
- Enhance our approach to whole-child wellness by partnering with families to tailor treatment plans that best support each patient’s unique needs.
When you partner with us, we can ensure that more patients have an outcome like Dylan.
