Friends Bring Hospitalized Girl Her Horse
GIBSON COUNTY, Tenn. – A Gibson County girl is pretty homesick, after spending weeks away from home in a Nashville hospital. But thanks to some family friends, she is a little better now after they drove her favorite pet to the hospital for a visit. It is not easy being in a hospital for three weeks when you are only nine years old, but a special reunion has made it a little easier. “We loaded Pops up, and took him to Vanderbilt,” said LeeAnn Johnson, a family friend. Pops is Rylee Thomas’ horse. Johnson and another family friend, Annette Reese, brought Pops from Gibson County all the way to Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville to see Rylee. “I was excited,” Thomas said. “I was glad to see him.” Rylee, who went into acute renal failure after a possible exposure to e. coli, only got to see Pops for about an hour, but friends said she was smiling, and was comfortable for the first time in weeks. “I’m hoping it lifted her spirits and makes her feel better and hopefully gets her home, where she can love on him every day,” Johnson said. Johnson said Pops was Rylee’s very first horse, and he is one of her favorites. He always takes care of her. “Every little girl deserves the opportunity to have that connection with an animal, and every horse deserves to be loved by a little girl, and they have that connection,” Johnson said. Friends said the soon-to-be fifth grader is an active girl who loves being outside, not cooped up in a hospital room. “I really want her to come back and ride horses with me,” said Rylee’s friend, Mackenzie Johnson. And you can bet Pops will be with them. Family members said they are asking the community to pray for Rylee. They hope she can come home within a week.
