By Donald Wittkowski
Seconds after they crossed the finish line together, Debbie Laricks embraced her 9-year-old daughter, Peyton, in a tender moment that prompted applause, cheers and a few tears of joy from the crowd.
“Good job, Peyton,” spectators shouted.
Peyton acknowledged that the crowd’s warm reaction touched her. “Happy” is how she described feeling, emphasizing the word with an adorable smile.
Debbie Laricks said it was impossible in 2008, when Peyton was born with a life-threatening lung disease, to think that her daughter would someday be healthy enough to run a 5K race at her mother’s side.
“There are no words,” she said. “Never could I have imagined.”
Making the moment doubly special Saturday was the fact that Peyton’s achievement occurred during an annual charity race in Sea Isle City named in her honor. This was the first time she had run in the Peyton’s Promise 5K, the equivalent of 3.1 miles.
Asked how she felt afterward, Peyton replied, “tired.”
Her father, Dustin Laricks, who is in the real estate business in Sea Isle, said he was “a little emotional” after seeing Peyton complete the race with her mother.
Now in its ninth year, the Peyton’s Promise run-walk raises money for research at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to conquer the potentially fatal birth defect known as Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia, or CDH.
Peyton was born was CDH, and has made a remarkable recovery from the disorder that nearly took her life. People in the crowd Saturday were overheard calling her a “miracle child.”
Debbie and Dustin Laricks established the Peyton’s Promise foundation with the hope that it would help other children who have CDH. In addition to the charity run, they also hold an annual fundraiser at the Yacht Club of Sea Isle City to benefit Peyton’s Promise.
Dustin Laricks estimated that both events would raise about $50,000 this year. Through 2016, Peyton’s Promise had donated a total of $326,000 to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia from the two fundraisers.
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, or CHOP, is where Peyton was born on March 31, 2008. Most babies leave the hospital after only a few days. Peyton endured 88 days in the newborn intensive care unit, including 12 days on life support.
“The biggest thing she had to do was breathe. Before she was born, her lungs weren’t big enough to handle that task,” Marcus Davey, a researcher at CHOP, recalled of Peyton.
Davey noted Peyton’s initial prognosis was “fairly poor,” meaning that her doctors feared she might not survive.
“For a couple of moments, we didn’t know if she would pull through. But she was at the right place at the right time,” he said.
CDH leaves a hole in the diaphragm, allowing abdominal organs to migrate into the upper chest area and crowd out the lungs. To save her life, she underwent surgery to pull her liver and other organs out of her chest and correct the diaphragm.
Dr. Ken Liechty, the pediatric surgeon who performed the operation at CHOP, said there were additional risks because Peyton had been born prematurely.
Liechty said children suffering from CDH aren’t necessarily facing a “death sentence.” With recent advances in medicine, the survival rate for CDH is now 84 percent. When Peyton was born, it was between 40 percent and 50 percent, he said.
These days, Peyton faces no physical restrictions. She is allowed to run, play and do everything else a child of her age normally does.
Peyton will enter fourth grade at Bishop McHugh Regional Catholic School in Cape May Court House in the fall. She enjoys singing, dancing, acting, swimming and riding the surf on her boogie board during summer outings with her family on the 48th Street beach in Sea Isle.
