Teen golfer focuses on the game as he fights leukemia

By Maureen Gilmer, Riley Children’s Health senior writer, mgilmer1@iuhealth.org

Gavyn Fritz would love nothing more than to be on a golf course – even on a rainy Monday in Indianapolis. Instead, he is lying on a bed in a small room at Riley Hospital at IU Health North enduring yet another chemo treatment.

The high school senior is dressed for golf and spends a few minutes talking with his hematologist-oncologist, Dr. Anthony Ross, about a new driver he has ordered to improve his game.

The two share an easygoing relationship, with Dr. Ross forging a connection that helps in Gavyn’s long journey with high-risk B-cell leukemia, diagnosed last December.

“Dr. Ross’ positive attitude and bedside manner is why Gavyn has dealt with this as well as he has,” said Daryn Sturch, the 17-year-old’s mom.

That and the physician’s willingness to work with Gavyn on scheduling treatments so he can still compete for his North Miami High School golf team.

The teen first started to feel sick last November around his 17^th birthday, his mom said. They thought he had a stomach bug. A few days later, while he was playing basketball for his school team, he was looking pale and out of breath, Sturch said.

Tests at a local emergency department shocked the medical team and his family. His hemoglobin was 4.1. Normal hemoglobin levels in men range from 13.5 to 17.5. Hemoglobin enables red blood cells to transport oxygen and carbon dioxide throughout the body.

Sturch is a nurse who has worked in a pediatric setting and said that’s one of the lowest counts she’s seen.

“I kind of knew because of my background what we were dealing with,” she said.

After the leukemia diagnosis, Gavyn and his family met with Dr. Ross for several hours as he explained what treatment would look like. Gavyn began chemo immediately, getting a small reprieve to go home for Christmas.

“So many nurses on 5 West took care of him,” Sturch said, noting that several have their own cancer warrior stories. “I just love them so much.

Since that first inpatient stay, he has kept moving forward, his mom said, leaning on his friends and family, his school and community, and his medical team, keeping his eye on the finish line.

“Gavyn has always had a positive outlook on this,” said Sturch, who shares parenting duties with her former husband, Robert, as well as both of their current spouses. “And Dr. Ross has been absolutely amazing. He’s been a big encouragement to him.”

He was unable to continue playing basketball last season but returned to golf even amid intense treatment, which has included several IV and oral chemo medications, as well as an immunotherapy called blinatumomab, which uses a patient's own immune system to find and kill cancer cells.

In fact, he’s the first patient Dr. Ross can recall who golfed while hooked up to the 28-day continuous infusion pump carried in a backpack. The bag of medication and pump are held in the backpack, while the infusion runs through a port in his chest.

“It was probably the easiest of all the treatments,” Gavyn said.

“He was playing golf while wearing a backpack carrying his chemo,” Dr. Ross said, impressed. “I can barely play golf without chemo, much less wearing a backpack.”

Gavyn had two cycles of the blina immunotherapy and tolerated it well, his mom said, and the freedom he had to go to school and live life outside the hospital meant everything.

Dr. Ross expects Gavyn to finish the more intense part of his leukemia treatment by the end of this year, at which point he will enter the maintenance phase, which should last until April 2027. That typically consists of oral meds with monthly clinic check-ins.

“The biggest thing we’ve tried to do with Gavyn is work with him to make this a little easier,” Dr. Ross said. “If that means moving an admission five days so he can play in his golf tournament, let’s do it, provided it doesn’t affect his long-term outlook. We are pretty strict on what patients can do and not do from an infection standpoint.”

But working together makes sense.

“There is risk, but it is super important to Gavyn to be in school and play golf. And it’s super important to his mental health and his overall well-being,” the physician said.

It also figures into overall treatment compliance, he added, motivating teens in particular to stick with the portions of treatment that happen at home.

Gavyn, who thinks he might like to become a lawyer someday, is “great at arguing,” his mom said. “He’d be the best defense attorney you’d ever see.”

Regardless of his career choice, he would love to play golf in college. The sport has continued to be his outlet throughout the months of treatment.

“We just love to see him be himself and do what he enjoys,” said Trish Fritz, Gavyn’s stepmom. “We don’t like when there’s a roadblock, and he definitely doesn’t allow it to control him. He’s got a whole community behind him – four amazing parents that will do anything for him, three siblings who love him endlessly and an amazing girlfriend.”