Milan’s return to play

Like thousands of young people across Quebec, Milan Latulippe finds his teammates these days at the arena. But for him, the break has been long, very long, and this return to the game has a special meaning. Here is the story of Milan, ambassador of the CHU Sainte-Justine Foundation Winter Triathlon.

Catherine Handfield
The Press

True to form, Milan Latulippe was the first on the ice at 6:45 a.m. Monday morning. He says it himself: on the ice, that’s where he feels best.

Milan is an elite Diabolos hockey player from Lucille-Teasdale High School in Blainville. On Monday, the defensemen repeated the footwork at the offensive blue line and the fakes in transition. Milan carried out the exercises with the same vigor as the other players. The only thing that differentiated him was the color of his jersey, which allows him to be easily identified.

As Milan is on immunosuppressants, he has to keep a certain distance from others.

It’s a very small sacrifice for the 16-year-old teenager, who had been dreaming of this return to the game for more than nine months.

Milan’s life changed on March 11, 2021, during a consultation at the CHU Sainte-Justine.

His parents had been worried about the bruises their eldest son was getting from the slightest shock for a while. A blood test had just revealed abnormally low levels of platelets and hemoglobins.

The diagnosis was made: severe aplastic anemia, a rare disease that prevents the marrow from producing new stem cells and leads to a shortage of white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets.

Without adequate treatment, patients could die.

“It was a shock,” says Milan’s mother, Marie-Eve Carrier, whose three sons had always been healthy athletes.

The only treatment that offered a chance of a cure was stem cell transplantation. The two little brothers from Milan have proven to be incompatible. The medical team therefore turned to Héma-Québec’s international registry, where a compatible donor was found, much to the family’s relief.

While awaiting his transplant, which took place on May 18, Milan received platelet and whole blood transfusions. He also underwent chemotherapy and radiation treatments to melt the diseased marrow.

Escape by pedaling

In the hospital room in Milan, where he remained in isolation for 41 days, the CHU Sainte-Justine Foundation had a stationary bicycle installed. And the day after the transplant, Milan was pedaling. For short periods, but he pedaled. “I was afraid of losing my physical form, for which I had worked very hard, confides Milan, who has been doing a sports-study program since he was 12 years old. And it also allowed me to escape. »

In mid-June, Milan was able to return home. He had to continue to be very careful (he takes medication to suppress his immune system so he doesn’t reject the transplant), but he was able to train at home and run outside on a gradual schedule. .

As of September, the director of player development, Julien Tremblay, offered him two private 30-minute training sessions per week, on the ice. “It was super motivating to be part of Milan’s journey and to see its evolution from one week to the next,” he underlines.

And on December 16, finally, Milan was able to take training with his teammates.

We know the rest: the Omicron variant has arrived, postponing the return to play, but also the return to school in the presence for Milan. He was a bit discouraged, his mother agrees, but not for long. “He thought he would have time to train a little more on the ice rink in our yard,” says Marie-Eve Carrier, impressed by her son’s resilience, which she attributes to his athletic career.

Milan is now on the road to recovery. And his goal is to resume matches, “100%”. “Knowing the little guy, his adaptation will be done the right way,” concludes Julien Tremblay.

Milan is co-ambassador of the CHU Sainte-Justine Foundation Winter Triathlon, a fundraiser that will take place from February 14 to 20. From a distance, participants are invited to take up one of three sporting challenges inspired by the Milan course.