Brighten Your Day

Determined 5-Year-Old Overcomes 22 Brain Surgeries To Make It To His First Day Of School

September 12, 2017

5-year-old Dylan Lipton-Lesser of Chesterfield County, Virginia attended his first day of school after overcoming 22 brain surgeries.

"To see him going to kindergarten, wow! Is that possible?" his mother, India Lipton, told WRIC. "It is nothing short of a miracle that he is able to attend school and really do as well as he is."

Dylan Lipton-Lesser

Dylan had a long journey to his first day of school.

"Through his 22 surgeries and all his hospital visits, it's just been an amazing team to help this boy grow and attend kindergarten it's amazing," mother Shirley Lesser added.

Dylan was born 11 weeks premature which sparked many health issues that included brain bleeding, infections and hydrocephalus. To treat the life-threatening conditions, doctors had to operate on his brain 22 times.

"They did not expect him to live," Lipton told Inside Edition.

Dylan Lipton-Lesser

Everyone, from his teachers to the principal, has helped Dylan feel comfortable in his new school.

"The fact that we have a school system that can accommodate and in fact help students with disabilities to become the best that they can be, is one of the great things about living in this county and this state and in this country," Lesser told ABC 8 News.