Three-sport Lynn standout Aidan Dow beat the odds

All summer long, Aidan Dow could be found on Little League diamonds across Lynn as the ace of the Pine Hill pitching staff. Dow was named a District All-Star and pitched the Pine Hill Reds to the City Series final.
You?d never know by watching the lanky 13-year-old that when he was born, doctors were unsure if he?d make it to see his teenage years.
Aidan was diagnosed with congenital cystic malformations and bronchial atresia while he was still in utero. Both impact lung function. The likelihood of having both is extremely rare: According to Aidan?s father, Pete, doctors said the number of other known cases at the time was in the single digits worldwide.
For Jill Dow, preparing for the birth of her first child was scary enough without the extensive tests and ultrasounds she endured as doctors tried to figure out how severe Aidan?s condition was.
?We didn?t even know what to expect,” she said.
Aidan was born breathing on his own, but surgery was still necessary. The family waited three months before Aidan was big enough and strong enough to handle the extensive surgery to correct the malformations.
A successful surgery was followed by a lengthy hospital stay, during which Jill refused to leave her son?s side.
?My wife stayed in the hospital, she didn?t want to leave,” Pete recalled. “It?s funny ? the Little League World Series, when Saugus was in it (in 2003), we got her to leave to go to dinner and watch the game, but then she went right back to her room.”
When Aidan was released from the hospital, he had to live with a chest tube. When the tube was removed, the Dows found that they were far from out of the woods.
?A couple days (after the tube was removed), he?s all colicky, so we took him to(a local) hospital and they said he had pneumonia,” Pete said.
?He was a really easy baby, so we knew something wasn?t right,” Jill recalled.
The pneumonia diagnosis didn?t sit right with the family, and they wanted a second opinion. They brought Aidan back to Children?s Hospital in Boston, where he had undergone surgery.
?We were just kind of lax, thinking it was no big deal,” Jill said. “When he got to radiology, a group of nurses grabbed him from me. They took him for a CAT scan saying it was an emergency. I just wanted to sit on the floor, it was terrible. It was really tough, and really crazy.”
It turned out that Aidan had suffered a collapsed lung, and the Dows were lucky it was caught in time.
?If we hadn?t gone to Boston ? it wouldn?t have been good,” an emotional Pete said.
Following another surgery to correct the collapsed lung and another extended hospital stay, Aidan?s condition started to improve.
The hospital visits began to wane. First, multiple visits a week were necessary to keep an eye on Aidan?s progress. That dropped to once a week, and eventually to once a month for a couple of years. Now, Aidan makes trips to the doctor exactly as much as most healthy 13-year-olds: once a year.
It was uncertain what kind of quality of life awaited Aidan, and whether or not he?d be able to live as freely as other kids his age.
?They didn?t know if he could play sports, they didn?t know how healthy he would be, but they knew that problem needed to be cleared up,” said Pete. “Best case scenario, you live a normal life.”
But Aidan?s scenario has been better than “best.” Not only is he living a normal life, but he?s become a standout athlete. Aidan plays sports year round, serving as the quarterback in football, pitching in the spring and summer, and playing basketball in the winter.
?They told us he probably wouldn?t be able to play sports, that he?d have really bad asthma,” said Jill. “He was on an oxygen tank. But the winter (after his second surgery) was probably the last time he ever used a nebulizer. He doesn?t have an inhaler or anything.”
Now, the only reminders of Aidan?s surgeries are in the form of a large yet faint scar running down the left side of his torso, and another scar so slight that even Aidan has