Meet Evan
On Saturday, February 21, 2026, 4-1/2-year-old Evan woke up dizzy and unable to walk. For the last week, Evan had been feeling ill, vomiting periodically and becoming increasingly fatigued. The dizziness was the last straw. Worried, his parents Sam and Ian took him to the emergency department (ED).
In the ED, Evan received a CT scan. The scan found a mass in his brain.
That afternoon, Evan was admitted to Nationwide Children’s. On Sunday morning, he underwent an hour-long MRI to further investigate the mass. The result: it was a cancerous tumor the size of a billiard ball. It was pressing on his brainstem and keeping fluid from draining normally from his brain. Evan needed surgery as soon as possible.
On Tuesday — just days after that initial CT scan — Evan underwent brain surgery to remove the tumor. The doctors had told Sam and Ian what to expect as he recovered, but it was difficult to see their little boy unable to move, let alone speak. “In a heartbeat, everything changed,” his father Ian said. “He can’t walk. He can’t talk, all within the space of a couple days. … Everything happened so fast.”
But the Nationwide Children’s team supported the family at every step. After the surgery, Evan spent 10 days in the pediatric intensive care unit due to brain swelling and high blood pressure. One night, when doctors came in at 4 a.m. to adjust Evan’s medication, Ian wanted to know what was happening. They sat down with him, showed him charts and explained why they were making medication changes. “They didn’t dismiss us. They didn’t talk at us. They told us we were the most important part of our son’s care team, and we felt that,” Ian said.
When Evan’s blood pressure came down and the brain swelling subsided, he returned to his room on the neurology floor, which had been decorated by the nurses for his arrival. The nurses and doctors spent time with him every day during his two and a half months as an inpatient, even traveling to his daily radiation therapy with him. His surgeon encouraged Sam and Ian to let Evan watch his favorite cartoons, which unlocked a new milestone: Evan laughed for the first time since the surgery. The family felt real hope.
Today, Evan is home. While he will be receiving chemotherapy for the next 10 months and receives physical, occupational and speech therapy every week, he’s also busy getting back to being a typical 5-year-old. He loves to ride his bike, go to the pool, play with his little brother and watch hamster videos. Sam and Ian are hopeful that his recovery will continue to go well and are grateful to the Nationwide Children’s team.
“Having Nationwide Children’s in our backyard, it’s been huge,” his mother Sam said. “Because we would’ve moved. We would’ve moved anywhere in the country to get him the best care. We didn’t have to.”
Ian agreed. “We’ve absolutely made the right choice in staying at Nationwide Children’s.”
