Buckeyes Fan, 10, Worries About Fate Worse Than Surgery: Loving Wolverines

Ivan Applin, 10, of Toldeo, OH, had one big concern before undergoing surgery in Michigan to repair a hole in his heart. Would he still love the Buckeyes? (Photo via C.S. Mott Hospital)

A big worry weighed heavily on a 10-year-old Ohio boy who underwent heart surgery at a University of Michigan hospital:

What if something went wrong during a cardiac catheterization to repair a hole in his heart and he awoke from the procedure loving the Wolverines?

This makes perfect sense for people who live in Michigan and Ohio. Fans of the University of Michigan Wolverines and Ohio State University Buckeyes have been at each other for years.

Young Ivan Applin, the patient, “asked if the Michigan doctors were going to make his heart love University of Michigan instead of Ohio State,” his mother, Jennifer, said, according to a blog post on the website for the University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.

The Toledo fourth-grader needn’t have worried.

Dr. Ronald Grifka, who performed the surgery at the hospital’s Congenital Heart Center, reassured Ivan he would love the Buckeyes as much as he always had, but the procedure would leave him with more energy to enjoy their games, as well as his own favorite recreational pursuit: soccer.

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Children born with Ivan’s condition, an atrial septal defect, have holes in their heart that interfere with blood flow to their organs. In Ivan’s case, the holes grew larger as he matured, resulting in too much blood flowing to his lungs and enlarging his heart.

Left untreated, the condition can cause a barrage of problems, ranging from shortness of breath to an increased risk of stroke in the future.

Ivan is recovering nicely from the surgery, which involved the implantation of a newly FDA-approved device, and was able to return home the following the morning. He should be able to resume normal activities within a few weeks.

His allegiances to Ohio State haven’t changed, but he “may have just a little room for Michigan in his heart now,” the blog post noted.