By Terry Karkos,Staff Writer

RUMFORD – Despite his healthy looking, fun-loving appearance, Dylan Mingo is not well.

Since he was 8 weeks old, the 8-year-old Rumford boy has had a life-threatening illness that has baffled doctors from Maine to Pittsburgh.

He needs medicine four times a day just to eat and keep his stomach from spasming painfully, says his mother, Linda Mingo, of 165 Oxford Ave.

His problems have been gastrointestinal-related. He also can’t vomit, so when he gets sick with the flu, his stomach must be pumped, she said.

“We don’t know what this is,” Linda Mingo said Monday of her son’s malady. “I don’t know why these gastrointestinal issues keep popping up. It’s just crazy.”

“A year ago, his tests were perfect. Now, his doctors are as much in the dark as we are,” she added.

On Tuesday, Dylan Mingo underwent his 17th anesthetized surgery, this one at Maine Medical Center in Portland. A biopsy was done on his intestines, which “are all mangled up,” Linda Mingo said.

Test results should be ready by Friday, Sept. 16.

“Whatever they find, we’ll deal with it then,” she said.

The nightmare began 56 days after Dylan Mingo was born in July 1997. There were no complications until he was 8 weeks old. He suffered major gastrointestinal bleeding, was rushed to Maine Medical Center, and spent three days in intensive care. But nothing wrong could be found.

Biopsies of Dylan Mingo’s stomach and small intestine began in March 1998. Since then, he has endured an extensive variety of medical tests and expensive medicine needs, which Linda and her husband, Paul, a Jay police officer, have struggled to afford.

“He had been doing good, but this summer, he had bend-over, excruciating pain in his belly. There’s never a dull moment, but it could be worse,” Linda Mingo said.

Last week, the Sunshine Foundation Dream Village of Davenport, Fla., granted Dylan his wish to go to Disney World. Though they arrived right after Hurricane Katrina swept through, Dylan had a good time.

“He rode on every water slide ride, and we sat four rows back from the water at Sea World, so we got drenched. But that’s what he wanted to do,” Linda Mingo said.

“That place was so wonderful, and Sunshine, they were fantastic. They got our mind off things. It was very relaxing,” she added.

Though tired of being sick and poked and prodded by doctors, Dylan Mingo has yet to complain.

“I think he’s got a lot of inner strength and the grace to handle it. He understands it now that he’s older, but he’s pretty tired of it, too, and just wants it fixed,” she said.