Ryan Hunter wasn’t going to let anything stop him from attending Mariner High School’s graduation ceremony.
Not even a collapsed lung.
Thanks to an assist from the transport team at Golisano Children’s Hospital, the 18-year-old celebrated the event less than two full days after surgery, indistinguishable from his fellow classmates except for the portable chest drainage device attached to his body.
“That was his dream to be at graduation,” said Tamara Joy Hunter, Ryan’s mother. “He was so excited about this moment.
“It’s been a beautiful journey for him and to see that it all happened with the support of a village, it just hugs my heart.”
Ryan, who ranked among the top 10 students in Mariner’s Class of 2026 and will attend the University of South Florida to study veterinary medicine, began experiencing symptoms while attending the Rotary South Scholar Athlete Banquet on May 26.
“He said, very passively, ‘My chest hurts,’” Tamara Joy Hunter said. “He doesn’t complain of pain with just about anything so I knew if he was speaking on it, then he probably needed more support.”
After receiving his award, Ryan, a captain of the Mariner tennis team and a state tournament qualifier in bowling, went to Golisano. Staff quickly determined he was suffering from spontaneous pneumothorax, a sudden collapse of the lung that occurs when air leaks into the space between the lung and chest wall. Tall, thin adolescent males like Hunter, who is 6-foot-4, are at the greatest risk for the condition.
It was a familiar diagnosis for the Hunter family. In 2017, Ryan’s older brother Rashawn received the same diagnosis as a 16-year-old junior at Mariner. Rashawn fully recovered following surgery and in 2018, the standout athlete was a finalist for The News-Press Offensive Football Player of the Year. He went on to play at Marshall University.
“We had never heard of it until it happened to Rashawn,” Tamara Joy Hunter said of spontaneous pneumothorax. “When the nurse told Ryan his lung was diminishing, I got a little stressed. I was having PTSD from what Rashawn went through.”
Yet Ryan recovered so well from his initial surgery, doctors approved him going to Mariner’s graduation. Upon his return to Golisano, the Hunters hosted 30 immediate family members for a graduation party.
Ryan had his chest tube removed on June 2 and his condition is being closely monitored with the expectation that he’ll soon be able to return home while continuing treatment with a pulmonologist.
“He’s doing pretty well,” Tamara Joy Hunter said. “Going through it all, he has had a positive mindset.
“Because of Rashawn’s triumph, it lets me know that God answers prayers and that Ryan will be OK.”
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Mariner senior attends graduation days after surgery for collapsed lung
Reporting by Dan DeLuca, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News / Fort Myers News-Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Dan DeLuca, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News | USA TODAY Network
