It was an event-filled Spring Training for Ryan Dempster.  In addition to getting ready for the upcoming season – the first on his new four-year, $52 million contract – he and wife Jenny were also expecting their second child.  It was an exciting time, until the problems started.

First, doctors noticed that Jenny was retaining a lot of water and that their unborn child had fluid building up in her lungs.  Dempster’s daughter, Riley, was born prematurely on April 1.  It was a scary time and a week later things got worse.  Riley was diagnosed with DiGeorge Syndrome, a malady that involves a missing part of a chromosome that disrupts her normal swallowing reflex.  Since her birth, Riley has spent her entire young life in an incubator with a tracheotomy tube in her throat.  Definitely a tough way to start life.

It’s been tough on Dempster too.  His mind is always with Riley, yet he is expected to take the mound every fifth day and pitch well enough to give his team a chance to win.  Although he’s had a few rough moments, Dempster has done a good job of taking care of things at work before heading off again to be with his daughter.  So far this year Dempster is 4-3 with a 4.12 ERA.

Riley was born in Arizona but was transferred to Chicago so her Dad could spend more time with her.  She’ll undergo another procedure today where doctors will inject botox into her secretion glands to help her swallow.  Dempster joked on Sunday about his daughter getting botox when she’s only two months old, but the pain is never far away. 

Dempster said that he wouldn’t wish this experience on his worse enemy and admitted that he cries a lot.  Who wouldn’t seeing a child go through such a tough thing.  He also sees a silver lining in all of this.  Going through so much at such a young age, Dempster believes, will make Riley a very strong woman.  “Nobody’s going to be able to tell her she can’t do something,” Dempster said.  “If she can get through all this, she can get through everything.”