Treasures - Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics

Now happily back at home, Granton
stands tall in his treasured cowboy
boots.
wrote in his blog. “It was a lot of fun looking at
different boots online and picking them out. These
boots not only represented the excitement we felt
about Granton leaving the hospital. They also are a
symbol of what we have gone through and what God
has taught us through this journey.”
Despite a few setbacks along the way, Granton’s T-cell
scores improved and he was able to transition off the
feeding tubes. Thanks to his newly rebuilt immune
system, he fought off the RSV, which he had been
unable to shake for so long, by early September. The
miracle that Daniel and Jenni had prayed for had come
to pass, and the family believes that the hands of the
medical staff at Children’s Mercy were the means God
used to accomplish it.
“Children’s Mercy has been so great,” says Jenni.
“Whatever problem you have, there’s a doctor there
who can help you. The staff has shown real concern
and love for Granton.”
Granton stands tall in his new cowboy boots.
But even when an exact match bone marrow donor
was identified for Granton, the doctors couldn’t perform
the transplant because he was too sick to undergo the
chemotherapy that would precede it. So, they opted for a
cord blood transplant, which means that the transplanted
cells come from the umbilical cord of a newborn instead
of a bone marrow donor. Because cord blood transplants
require a much lighter course of chemotherapy, Granton’s
care team hoped that he would be able to tolerate it better
in his weakened condition.
Finally, the time came for the hero to load up his
saddlebags and ride off into the sunset. On September
11, scores of cheering people lined the hallway to wish
him well as he made his way down the corridor. And
after all they had been through with him, there was
hardly a dry eye to be seen.
As he turned his face toward the west, Granton headed
out the door with his boots on to the wide open
spaces outside the walls of Children’s Mercy for the
first time in half a year. And it didn’t matter that he
was mounted on a wagon instead of a horse, because
Cowboy Granton would live to ride another day.
The cord blood transplant, which was performed on June
10, marked a key turning point for Granton. His white
blood cell count began to improve almost immediately.
By July 4, he had improved enough to have the ventilator
removed and the freedom this represented gave new
meaning to Independence Day for the Bayless family.
Granton was getting better, and each sign of improvement
was bringing him closer to the day when he would wear his
cowboy boots out of the hospital.
Granton and Mom getting ready to leave the hospital
“We talked about what the boots would look like,” Daniel
4 | childrensmercy.org