Lion # 150 was donated by the Ryan's Lion Organization in honor of Craig A. If you currently own this lion, please click the"Register a Lion" tab to register your lion. You may post a story if you desire. 

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On a cold day in February of 1984, the busy, simple life we knew
changed forever.  Our healthy, active, 22 month old son Jared went from
playing to dying in a matter of hours due to a critical case of Spinal
Meningitis which was complicated by Septic Shock.

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Cody B. was born January 13, 1999. His due
date was March 21st. He weighed in at 3.5lbs. He was doing very well and
then got an infection. They told us for days that he wouldn’t make it,
and even let us bring our two little boys so they could see him. But day
by day he started to get better. They were preparing us to take him
home and then he had a brain bleed. At first, they told us there was
nothing they could do for him, but one of our Doctors (Dr. Stoddard)
contacted Dr. Walker at Primary Children’s Hospital. Dr. Walker said to

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On October 1st 2008 our four-year-old son Bridger started to run a fever.  This was not a big surprise because it was fall. Every year of his life up to this point he had been hospitalized for a minimum of seven days due to lung related infections. This always seemed to happen in the fall and winter months.  His doctors never diagnosed any chronic
condition.

Editor’s Note: Ryan Otchis, age 3, was diagnosed with epilepsy as an infant. His family maintains a website, www.ryanslions.com, which is NOT related to the ryanslion.org website which you are currently viewing. We thought Ryan and his story deserved some additional publicity, and since November is Epilepsy Awareness month, it is our pleasure to share some of Ryan’s journey with our readers.

No Matter What Life Throws Your Way…Raising Epilepsy Awareness

Lion #115 was given to Bridger when he was preparing to undergo a bone marrow transplant. Now, Bridger passes on Ryan's Lions to other children he meets who need a little extra "courage." Read More about Bridger by clicking "Read More" below.

On a cold day in February of 1984, the busy, simple life we knew changed forever.  Our healthy, active, 22 month old son Jared went from playing to dying in a matter of hours due to a critical case of Spinal Meningitis which was complicated by Septic Shock.

As parents of Jared as well as 3-year-old and 6-week-old daughters, we felt young, inexperienced and unsure of how to handle the grim prognosis we received that Jared’s was the most critical Meningitis case our doctor had seen.  We were told that he wouldn’t live, and then when he did live, we were told that he would have severe brain da