Nurses throw surprise graduation for Colorado School of Mines senior diagnosed with cancer

A Colorado School of Mines senior recently diagnosed with leukemia graduated in the halls of his oncology ward in a surprise ceremony put together by his care team.

David Boylan's sister says he is an outdoorsy 21-year-old who loves hiking and camping. He was about to graduate a whole year early from the Colorado School of Mines with a degree in chemical engineering when the shocking diagnosis upended his life.

Days before graduation, Colorado School of Mines senior David Boylan got a stomachache. When it intensified, he went to urgent care and then the ER, where a high white blood cell count raised serious concerns.

"Within those labs, they saw something wrong with his blood counts, being his white blood cell count and his hemoglobin, his platelets, and within that determined that he was pretty high risk of having some kind of blood disorder at that point. And that's when he got sent over to us, and that's kind of our specialty," said Alex Meier, a registered nurse in the UCHealth Bone Marrow Transplant Unit.

He was quickly admitted to UCHealth's Bone Marrow Transplant Unit with a diagnosis of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, an aggressive blood cancer.

"I met David that morning," said Meier. "It's really tough to see somebody kind of just starting their life, just getting ready to graduate, receiving that diagnosis right at the beginning."

The diagnosis meant that crossing the commencement stage was not an option; Boylan needed immediate treatment. Come graduation day, instead of tossing his cap, Boylan found himself preparing for his first round of chemotherapy.

"Cancer is not picky, and it oftentimes shows up in times when no one would expect it," said Elise Slater, charge nurse at the UCHealth Bone Marrow Transplant Unit. "I just felt for him, and then quickly pivoted to, like, 'Well, what can we do?'"

But little did Boylan know, the nurses caring for him had something up their sleeves.

"First thing in the morning, a few people came to my desk and said, 'You know, David's supposed to graduate today,' and I said, 'I did hear about that,' and next thing I knew, we were getting the balls rolling," said Slater. "I knew the accomplishments he had achieved at that point, and knew what was supposed to happen for him that week, and our team took it upon themselves to make that a special moment for him, and it was a huge group effort."

Providers rushed to buy supplies and covertly set something up in the hall.

"Our advanced practice providers were running all over the hospital, finding a cap and gown. Our manager was going to get balloons. It turned into a bigger thing than I ever anticipated," said Meier.

Then Meier asked Boylan to take a walk with him.

"At that point my heart was beating, and then I walked around that corner and just saw how many people had come out and all the work they had put in, and that was just shocking for me, and just incredible," said Boylan.

"Oh. Oh wow!" Boylan exclaimed in a TikTok video of the surprise posted by his sister, Sara.

After putting on a Mines hat and gown, David Boylan walked his very own processional as a team of medical staff cheered him on.

"This week wasn't supposed to look like this," Meier said emotionally in the TikTok video. "There were supposed to be caps and gowns and a stage."

"I definitely about lost it with the first couple of words, and then again inspired by him and his strength in that moment," said Meier. "The strength that David showed in that moment, and just taking life as it comes, and you never know what's around the corner, and never know the hand you're gonna get dealt, but just being able to manage that and push through that."

A one-of-a-kind ceremony honored a young graduate facing his hardest challenge yet.

"He just showed so much appreciation, family showed so much appreciation. And that just really reinforced that we did the right thing in that moment, and we really made that a special day for him. And [we] weren't just viewing him as a cancer patient, but viewing him again as a person, and highlighting all the good things that he had done up to that point and will continue to do throughout his life," said Meier.

"It was beautiful. I'm just so glad that we were able to do it," said Slater. "I think that it filled everyone's cup, not just David and his family. Our specialty is hard. Working in oncology is hard, and anything that we can do to celebrate victories, whether they're related to disease or not, is, I think, something that anyone on our team would jump at the chance to do."

Boylan's sister says she's never seen such an act of love and described his reaction as emotional and extremely grateful.

She says the first phase of his treatment at UCHealth is expected to take about a month.

Boylan already has an engineering job lined up in Colorado. His sister says he has faith he'll be able to start it later this year.