Bananas help grant wish for 8-year-old with cystic fibrosis

Fans first. That’s the slogan of the Savannah Bananas. But this weekend, there was one special...
Fans first. That’s the slogan of the Savannah Bananas. But this weekend, there was one special fan in attendance, who the team rolled out the yellow carpet for.(WTOC Staff)
Published: Jun. 3, 2024 at 8:04 PM EDT

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - Fans first. That’s the slogan of the Savannah Bananas. But this weekend, there was one special fan in attendance, who the team rolled out the yellow carpet for.

Thanks to the Bananas and the Make-A-Wish Foundation, a young girl from central Louisiana had her dream come true. 8-year-old Carrigan LaCaze was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at just two weeks old, and after a year long process of working with the foundation, she had her wish of going to a Bananas game granted.

“It was immediately ‘I want to go to the Savannah Bananas game,’” said Leah LaCaze, Carrigan’s mother. “She’s had this countdown going for a very long time and every day she tells me ‘Mom, 62 days left.’ So being here is actually more than we could ever imagine.”

Most days in the LaCaze household aren’t easy.

“She wakes up around 5 o’clock every morning on school mornings, and she has two breathing treatments that she has to do,” said Leah. “Then she has a vest that she has to wear for like 45 minutes that shakes the mucus so that she can cough it up. Every time she eats a meal or snack, she has to take medicine. She has about six pills she takes.”

Because of the hard days, getting to escape to Bananaland for a few hours and hang out with the guys she watches on TikTok -- even while getting her treatments done -- was, in her words, “really exciting.”

“I’m getting to meet the players, play ball,” said Carrigan. “I went in their locker room and got some stuff from David Meadows, and he gave me a glove and a bat and a shirt.”

“We talked about our favorite foods, her favorite singer Morgan Wallen -- that’s mine too, so we clicked really fast,” said Bananas centerfielder DR Meadows. “We’re twins now -- we’ve got salty bracelets, same jerseys, same eye black, so we��re kinda best friends now, and I’m super glad she’s here.”

Things are even TikTok official now after DR gave her a follow. As for the road ahead for Carrigan, the outlook is better than what it once was.

“At one point, she got so skinny they wanted to put a feeding tube into her,” said Pierre LaCaze, Carrigan’s father. “Then she went to another hospital, she got on a wonderful medicine. Now she’s thriving, she’s doing a lot better, but she still has her disease flaring up every now and then.”

No matter her condition on any given day, though, the LaCaze family, and especially Carrigian, don’t let it get in her way.

“She might have cystic fibrosis, but we say we don’t let CF have her because we let her live her life,” said Leah. “She’s active in sports, she plays softball, but (being here) is just everything.”