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There are some patients doctors don’t forget.

Marquis Davis – a Lexington teen who has had multiple transplants – is one of them.

Tom Ryan, MD, PhD, Heart transplant physician: “Marquis is patient that I use to teach every single resident and every single fellow that I work with that a patient who’s had a transplant can turn on a dime, can get sick very quickly and can get profoundly sick very quickly and potentially need emergent and urgent care.”

Sherri Withrow, Marquis’s mom: “He was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome.”

That meant Marquis had half a heart. By the time he was 3, he needed a heart transplant. When he was 10, his body began rejecting that one.

That’s when he and his mom met Dr. Ryan.

Dr. Ryan: “When you’re with a family at times that are serious like this, that their child’s very sick, that they’re not sure what the outcome is, it’s almost like you’re drawn into the family and you can become one of them, at least for some period of time.”

They developed a bond during the Lexington family’s stays at Cincinnati Children’s.

Sherri: “Dr. Ryan has been – I love him to death. Like, I’ve had so many ups and downs, and he’s talked me through it. He’d done everything he could as a doctor, and I love him to death.”

Marquis is a pretty big fan, too. In December, Dr. Ryan was part of the care team when Marquis received two new organs – a heart and a kidney.

Marquis Davis, 17, Received a dual organ transplant: “I try not to go too into deep thinking about it, but I’m grateful that I was able to get the transplant. I’m still here.”

Sherri: “For him to be living and walking and up moving, I’m very thankful for it. It’s been a hard thing, because I’ve cried, prayed, cried, prayed, cried, prayed, and we getting through it. There’s still some ups and downs, but I’m going to fight all the way with him.”

Marquis and his mom will stay in Cincinnati for a few more months as he recovers.

He’s looking forward to the spring, when he will return to his senior year at Frederick Douglass High School and his job at a pizza place.

Dr. Ryan: “I think the future’s wide open for Marquis. He’s a really sharp kid, and when you get him to open up, he has some really good insights on things.”

Sherri: “The principal told me, ‘One thing you don’t have to worry about - he will walk in graduation of 2020, so at that point, he was excited and I was, too, because he’s struggled all the way to get to where he’s at.”

Marquis: “Thank you for not giving up on me.”

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