GREAT NECK, NY--- When Tyler Cacioppo was a five-year-old kindergartener, he suffered from constant constipation and high fevers.  One time, his fever spiked to 104 degrees and he was taken to Schneider Children’s Hospital.  Doctors performed a battery of tests, including body scans and computer tomography (CT) scans to look for the source of the infection.

After the tests revealed no obvious answers, they then performed a colonoscopy on Tyler, which showed that he had an abscess in his colon. The team started the young boy on a variety of medication, but to no avail. It was finally decided that Tyler needed surgery. Stephen Dolgin, MD, chief of pediatric surgery at Schneider Children’s Hospital (SCH), and an expert in childhood inflammatory bowel disease, was called into the case and he determined that Tyler had Crohn’s disease.

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) include a group of chronic disorders that cause inflammation or ulceration in the small and large intestines.  Most often, IBD is classified as ulcerative colitis, which causes ulceration and inflammation of the inner lining of the colon and rectum, and Crohn’s disease, which is an inflammation that extends into the deeper layers of the intestinal wall. It also may affect other parts of the digestive tract, including the mouth, esophagus, stomach and small intestine. 

The disorders may occur at any age and affects both males and females equally; it also appears to run in some families. The most common symptoms of Crohn’s disease are abdominal pain (often in the lower right area), diarrhea, rectal bleeding, weight loss and fever. The symptoms of ulcerative colitis are similar, with the addition of bloody diarrhea and anemia caused by severe bleeding, fatigue, and loss of body fluids, nutrients and appetite.

Having gone through so much at his young age, the future looks good for Tyler. After a number of abdominal surgeries, Tyler, now age 10, is back to being an active child, playing baseball and bowling. He is currently on medication, which helps to keep him symptom-free, and keep his Crohn’s disease in remission.  There is no way to predict when a remission may occur or when symptoms will return.

Watch Tyler and his mother, Patricia, tell their story on North Shore-LIJ’s “Medical Update,” which airs this Saturday, November 14 at 11 am on WLNY-TV, which can be seen on Channel 10 on Long Island Cablevision and Verizon FiOS TV, and on Channel 55 on Time Warner Cable, DirecTV and DishTV. The Cacioppos will be joined on the show by Dr. Dolgin and Jeremiah Levine, MD, chief of pediatric gastroenterology at SCH.

Contact: Elaine Wohl
516-465-2600/2615