A man from Chicago’s West Side continues to beat the odds despite being born with a rare condition in which his organs were outside his body.
Cases of the genetic condition keep increasing across the nation, and Darryl Hall of the Austin neighborhood is trying to inspire other patients and families.
No one would know Hall’s health battle with just a quick glance.
“Just by looking back at life, just understanding that I’ve been through a rough patch, you know, going through life as far as my health condition,” he said.
Hall, of Chicago’s Austin neighborhood, was born with gastroschisis, a condition in which a baby’s internal organs are on the outside of the body at birth.
“Constructed through a lot of surgeries growing up,” said Hall.
Hall recalls his early years were different. In elementary school, he was not able to do what other kids could do — with his parents keeping him from playing sports.
“As I got older, I started to realize all the things that they protected me from was really what built my mentality, built my structure, and just built my understanding for my own condition,” said Hall.
Gastroschisis is a condition that affects around one in 2,000 babies annually in the U.S. Despite surgeries, digestion can still limit patients and keep them from gaining weight.
Yet at 23, Hall has overcome his condition. He works as a chef — a love he developed while watching cooking shows with his mother as a child. But while watching those shows, he also saw chefs making tasty looking dishes that he couldn’t eat.
The food limitations that Hall had as a child allowed him to take that passion to wet his palate and prepare plates with love for others.
Hall is also an inspiring music artist.
Despite prevailing over his condition, Hall still walks into Northwestern Memorial Hospital for regular checkups.
“Darryl’s success is about as rare as he is as an individual, to be honest with you,” said Dr. Harold Boutte, a gastroenterologist at Northwestern Medicine.
Boutte has treated Hall for years.
“It’s lifelong, and so that’s kind of why I started doing this as a physician, because I get to know my patients,” Boutte said.
The two formed a bond.
“It’s never a day when he doesn’t ask me, ‘OK, what’s going on?'” said Hall. “I have to go in depth about what’s going on with me, and it makes me feel I have that support, that team behind me.”
July is Gastroschisis Awareness Month. While Hall is a success story, the trend shows more infants are being born with the condition — but it is not clear why.
“When conditions are rare and genetic, it’s hard to study, it’s hard to research, it’s hard to do trials on those kind of things,” said Boutte, “and so you’re usually reacting to what you’re finding, as opposed to doing something proactively about it.”
Hall tells his story to offer hope to impacted families.
“You can’t give up on yourself or just feeling as if all hope is lost because, you know. it’s a journey. It’s part of your journey,” said Hall. “That’s what builds character. That’s what what’s builds you.”
