- Tyler Nuttle, 32, could only see his condition worsen after he was diagnosed with an ‘inoperable’ brain tumor next to his spine
- Eighteen months later, he sought a second opinion from doctors at UC Medical in Cincinnati, who prepared it within days.
- Now he is looking forward to becoming a father again to his five-year-old son Jaxson
- “It didn’t even occur to me that going to a different doctor would change anything.”
Eighteen months of agony are over for a young father and Air Force veteran after discovering his ‘inoperable’ brain tumor could be removed after all.
Tyler Nuttle, 32, thought his life was over after an MRI scan in July 2022 revealed the tumor was impossibly close to his brain stem.
Doctors told him there was nothing they could do but offer grueling chemo and radiotherapy treatments in an attempt to stop its spread.
But nearly eighteen months later, he decided to get a second opinion and went to the doctors at UC Medical Center in Cincinnati.
“The very first appointment they were able to say they could take it out,” he said.
Tyler Nuttle, 32, was an Air Force veteran and staff sergeant in the Air National Guard when he started experiencing symptoms, including nausea and dizziness
The young father was forced to give up work and struggled to keep up with his son Jaxson
But 18 months after his hopeless diagnosis, he prepared for the surgery that would change his life – with the help of his mother, Ruth.
‘I couldn’t believe it because I had been told for almost a year and a half that this was inoperable, so it didn’t even occur to me that 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 feeling nauseous, struggling to get up and unable to drive in 2021.
He had to give up his job at a bar in Fairfield and it took another ten months for his symptoms to be diagnosed.
But discovering the cause of his illness provided little comfort.
“I was told, go live your life, and I think there can be more than this,” he said.
Friends and colleagues raised thousands of dollars to help him as his condition worsened at home in Hamilton County.
And all the while, his son Jaxson grew into a little boy who couldn’t understand why his father wasn’t feeling well.
“I haven’t been able to run with my almost-five-year-old son, and that’s been hard because he’s very active,” Nuttle said. “It’s literally hard to keep up with him.
“A few days before the operation I told him I could run with you again.”
And now he is getting back on his feet after surgeons at the prestigious Ohio hospital completely removed the tumor early last month in an operation that others thought impossible.
“It got to the point where I thought, I can’t give up. There’s so much I had to fight for,” he told WLWT.
The brave young father is recovering at Cincinnati Rehabilitation Hospital in Blue Ash and is looking forward to returning to college and work.
Now he is recovering from an operation that he once thought impossible: ‘I didn’t even think that going to another doctor would change anything’
And Jaxson, now almost five, is helping his father take his first steps toward recovery
“I told him a few days before the surgery that I can run with you again,” he said
“It got to the point where I thought, I can’t give up. There’s so much I had to fight for
His mother, Ruth Campbell, said she hopes his story will inspire others to find their own way 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.”