After we moved to Morgan, our son, Max, was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. It’s an auto immune disease that attacks the colon, which he got as a side effect from taking Accutane. We were devastated that our healthy basketball player and energetic boy was now debilitated.

Max lost 50 pounds and got down to just 105 pounds. He quit basketball and all sports. He spent his days at home close to a toilet. He couldn’t sleep because of the pain. Primary Children’s Hospital was our only hope.

Max ended up having his colon removed. The doctors built a j-pouch out of his small intestine that connects to his rectum. We stayed in the hospital for weeks at a time several times. The nurses always greeted us, remembered his name, and cheered him on. Before Max was about to turn in his mission papers, he had a major blockage in his j-pouch. He had emergency surgery by Dr. Barhart. We almost lost him that night.

Max survived the surgery but had a long road ahead to reconstruct his j-pouch. We spent weeks and weeks in Primary Children’s. His reconstruction went very well.

Max is now a student at USU and living a normal life. He’s studying to be a pediatric gastrologist. He hopes to be a doctor at Primary’s someday. Max is also in the process of volunteering at Primary’s Sophie’s Music Room to help other kids.

We are beyond grateful for Primary Children’s. They were so loving and patient with him.

Dr. John Pole and the surgeon Dr. Scott Short were amazing. They worked together to help Max. We’ve grown very close to those two doctors. Their love, compassion, and concern for Max was above and beyond.

Stories on this site are shared with permission of the patient or their legal guardian.