Eighteen months of agony have ended for a young dad and Air Force veteran after discovering that his ‘inoperable’ brain tumor could be removed after all.
Tyler Nuttle, 32, thought his life was over after an MRI scan revealed the tumor impossibly close to his brain stem in July 2022.
Doctors told him there was nothing they could do except offer grueling courses of chemo and radiotherapy in a bid to stop it spreading.
But nearly 18 months later, he decided to ask for a second opinion and went to see doctors at the UC Medical center in Cincinnati.
‘The very first appointment they were able to say they can take it out,’ he said.
Tyler Nuttle, 32, was an Air Force veteran and a staff sergeant in the Air National Guard when he began suffering symptoms including nausea and vertigo
The young dad was forced to give up work and struggled to keep up with his baby son Jaxson
But 18 months after his hopeless diagnosis he prepared for the operation that would change his life – with the help of his mother, Ruth
‘I couldn’t believe it because I was told for almost a year and a half this is inoperable, so it didn’t even cross my mind going to a different doctor would change anything.
‘I just thought it was a universal truth.’
Nuttle was medically discharged from his role as a staff sergeant in the Air National Guard and found it impossible to work as the tumor left him nauseous, struggling to stand and unable to drive in 2021.
He had to give up his job at a bar in Fairfield, and it was another 10 months before his symptoms were diagnosed.
But there was little consolation in discovering the cause of his illness.
‘I was told, go live your life, and I’m like I think there can be more than this,’ he said.
Friends and colleagues raised thousands of dollars to help support him as his condition deteriorated at home in Hamilton County.
And all the time his baby son Jaxson was growing into a little boy who could not understand why his Daddy was unwell.
‘I haven’t been able to run with my son who is almost five, and that’s been hard because he’s really active,’ Nuttle said, ‘It’s literally hard to keep up with him.
‘I told him a couple days before the surgery I’m going to be able to run with you again.’
And now, he is getting back on his feet after surgeons at the prestigious Ohio hospital completely removed the tumor in an operation others thought impossible, early last month.
‘It got to the point where I’m like I can’t give up. There’s so much I needed to fight for,’ he told WLWT.
The brave young dad is recovering at the Cincinnati Rehabilitation Hospital in Blue Ash, and is looking forward to returning to college and going back to work.
Now, he is recovering from the operation he once thought impossible: ‘It didn’t even cross my mind going to a different doctor would change anything’
And Jaxson, now nearly five, is helping his Daddy take his first steps to recovery
‘I told him a couple days before the surgery I’m going to be able to run with you again,’ he said
‘It got to the point where I’m like I can’t give up. There’s so much I needed to fight for’
His mother, Ruth Campbell, said that she hopes his story will inspire others to find their own ways out of ‘impossible’ situations.
‘Just don’t give up,’ she said.
‘Keep looking for the answer you want to hear.
‘He kept going until he heard it.’