Update: 6-Year-Old Boy With Brain Tumor Leaves Hospital

EAST HAVEN, CT - Days after having a brain tumor removed, 6-year-old Ryder Feeley was released from the hospital Sunday.

His mother will meet with his oncology team Wednesday. She said she'll learn Ryder's diagnosis and more about his chemo and radiation treatment plan, but for now, he's home.

Original story:

Ryder had not been himself for months.

The former Overbrook Learning Center student has of late often been angry and acting out, But he also began having terrible headaches. Recently diagnosed with ADHD, and last year with hearing loss, his doctors thought the headaches and behavior changes were related to those diagnoses.

But his mom Nicole, a lifelong East Havener until a move to North Haven, believed something else was wrong.

She said, for example, Ryder would stop playing during school recess and would writhe on the ground.

“No child stops recess, stops playing when they’re six,” she said. He was on the ground in pain, it turns out.

And, he was never an angry or aggressive boy. So she said she knew it must be something else.

“I called every doctor under the sun,” she said, and then, a neurologist. “believed me.”

“I wasn't going to take no for an answer. The doctor said it can’t hurt to take a look. They believed me.”

Tuesday Ryder had an MRI and it didn’t take long for doctors to see what was wrong. Little Ryder had a massive tumor covering part of his brain. And smaller ones nearby as well as tumors or tumor fragments in spinal fluid. The next day, the first grader was in surgery to remove the tumor, or at least a part of it.

Patch spoke to Nicole as she stood by her son in a Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital ICU bed, her voice quaking.

She and her partner Ronnie Torello, are shaken to their core. And not leaving Ryder’s side.

The surgery was successful in removing much of the tumor, Nicole said. And Ryder is awake. But there’s a long road ahead. Doctors may still need to remove more of the tumors but will at least begin to treat the tumors that remain with radiation and chemotherapy. And, it’s too soon to know if the tumors are cancerous. Nicole said it’s possible that her son never had actual hearing loss, something that runs in her family, rather, the hearing loss may have been caused by the growing brain tumor.

But, she said, he’s getting superlative care and support at the hospital. And, he told her when he awoke from the surgery that doctors "found my superpowers" when they took the "bump out of my head.”

So for now, for today, there’s relief. But, there’s a road ahead. He was released from the hospital Sunday.

In the meantime, Victoria Steele, whose son is a friend of Ryder’s, launched a GoFundMe for the family.

Nicole wept on the phone as she explained how moved she was by the love and caring. She told Patch that prayers are the most important, and that not working or having money has yet to cross her mind. Her focus is on her son.

“I don't know about anywhere else, but we are so blessed to live here and have (YNHCH),” she said before ending the call to go lay down in the hospital bed with her boy.

To help the family, or to learn more, visit the GoFundMe page "A Special Little Boy Needs Our Prayers" here.

GoFundMe is a Patch partner.