Dempster, Family Struggle With Daughter's Illness
Cubs' ace's infant daughter hasn't come home since her birth
By MAGGIE HENDRICKS
Updated 6:10 PM CST, Sun, Jun 7, 2009
Ryan Dempster, last year's ace pitcher for the Cubs, is battling much more than a subpar start to his season with the Cubs. His newborn daughter, Riley, is battling a rare disease that affects her ability to swallow and digest. The ten-week-old was born just days before the Cubs' season opener, and has yet to come home to Dempster, his wife Jenny and son Brady.
Dempster had not discussed his daughter's condition, or his nightly trips to Children's Memorial Hospital in Lincoln Park, until recently. He opened up to the Chicago Tribune, and talked about how Riley is progressing and how it is affecting the pitcher and his family.
"The story isn't that I have it, but that kids in general have it. Has it been rough? Yes, it's been rougher than anything I can imagine," Dempster said. "I would've never wished it on your worst enemy, to have to sit there and watch your 6-week-old go through something like that. April was as miserable as I've ever been, being away from my wife, my son and my daughter's in a hospital and she's never seen the outside of anything except an ambulance ride to and from the airport to get medically transported from Arizona to Childrens in Chicago."
Dempster is not the only Cub to deal with a problem such as this. Derrek Lee, the Cubs' first baseman, has been working since 2006 to help researchers find a cure for his daughter's rare eye disease which is causing her to lose vision. Like Lee, Dempster is leaning on his teammates for support, and uses baseball as an escape.
"You know what, you'd be surprised. It's almost like baseball feels like a safe haven, your mental gateway, where you can just go out and have fun and play baseball and compete and don't think about it. The only time it would affect me was after an inning, where things were going bad, and just frustration and anger sets in because no little kid deserves that, not just my kid."
Copyright NBC Local Media
First Published: Jun 7, 2009 5:31 PM CST
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