Young Ohio State fan worried that Michigan heart surgeons would turn him into a Michigan Man

Ivan Applin was apprehensive about having heart surgery. You would be, too, if you were 10 years old and facing that sort of thing.

But that’s not what Ivan was worried about the most. The youngster from Toledo, Ohio — and, thus, an Ohio State fan — was worried that the doctors at the University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital would turn him into a Michigan Man.

“He asked if the Michigan doctors were going to make his heart love University of Michigan instead of Ohio State,” Ivan’s mother, Jennifer, told UofM’s Health Blog with a laugh.

Ivan, who was adopted from Russia, was born with atrial septal defect. In other words, he had holes in his heart that only grew larger as he got older, “resulting in too much blood flowing to his lungs and enlarging his heart,” Michigan’s blog reported. So the school’s pediatric surgeons inserted a new device called Cardioform — permeable fabric over a thin wire frame — to close those holes.

Ivan was up and about on the same day as the surgery. He’ll be back playing soccer soon and, one assumes, will be in front of the television wearing red — not khakis — on Nov. 28 when Ohio State travels to play Michigan.