VIDEO: Six-year-old survivor sings at a Vancouver Giants game

When six-year-old Casey Dyck sang O Canada to open the Jan 28 Vancouver Giants home game against Kelowna at the Langley Events Centre, it was an “aw” moment.

With his mom, Whitney standing next to him, a confident Casey sang the anthem while wearing a Giants jersey, ending to thunderous applause and cheering.

“He went for it,” a proud Whitney told the Langley Advance Times.

Senior VP Dale Saip’s grandson Casey with the cutest anthem of the year 🎶 pic.twitter.com/KFTwEysSjM

— Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants) February 1, 2022

Giants vice-president Dale Saip, Casey’s grandfather, said it happened because Casey’s mom – and uncle Gatlin Saip – often sing the anthem at hockey games, including the Giants and Canucks.

Casey, a passionate hockey fan, had been lobbying his “Papa,” Saip, to skate with the Giants team.

Papa replied that Casey would have to sing the national anthem at a Giants game first.

“Work for the reward,” Saip explained.

Whitney said on the way to the game at the Langley Events Centre, she assured Casey he didn’t have to be nervous because she would be there with him, and she would have a microphone, just in case.

He told her not to sing.

“He was very confident,” Whitney recalled.

Casey was a “little disapointed” that it wasn’t a full crowd (because of pandemic restrictions), she added.

For the youngster, it was his second moment in the proverbial limelight.

There is another story about Casey, whose name means “brave and vigilant.” It’s about a child who nearly died, then made a miraculous recovery.

In 2016, Casey, a happy-go-lucky newborn, developed a slight temperature and was uncharacteristically fussy.

Whitney and dad Dave took him from their home in Tsawwassen to Richmond General Hospital, where Casey was diagnosed with a respiratory virus.

Casey’s condition was worsening, and as he was being prepared for transport to BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver, he stopped breathing and went into cardiac arrest.

A “code blue” emergency warning sounded.

“He was just as white as a ghost,” Dave recalled,

It took 45 to 50 minutes to bring Casey back.

BC Children's Hospital | Casey's Story from Noravera on Vimeo.

Casey would spend 26 days in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at BC Children’s Hospital, where a specialized infant ventilator kept his tiny lungs inflated and allowed them to heal.

Seventy-two hours after the code blue, there was some good news.

A CT scan found no abnormality in Casey’s brain function.

“Your baby defies all logic,” the doctor told his parents. “In my experience, this doesn’t happen.”

Casey went to be a “poster child” for the hospitals that helped save him, and today is a thriving, rambunctious kid, who walked early, talked early, and goes at life “full-on,” according to his mom.

“He’s absolutely a dynamo,” Whitney said.

For the record, Casey’s older brother, Jameson, has a wonderful singing voice, but so far isn’t interested in performing in front of a crowd.

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