Forget counting backward — Dylan Black drifted into surgery exactly the way a lifelong music lover should: with Guns N’ Roses blasting through the operating room.
“To me, it was comforting,” Dylan said of hearing Welcome to the Jungle play as he lay on the table at Queensway Carleton Hospital, thanks to his surgeon, Dr. Jean-Claude Gauthier. “I’ll never hear that song the same way again,” he joked to the care team moments before drifting off.
And then, in what felt like a heartbeat, he was waking up in recovery. A few hours later, he was already up and walking — and feeling a sense of relief he hadn’t known in years.
“During surgery I was at my most vulnerable. The QCH medical team made me feel safe and seen. Because of your generosity, patients like me experience moments of compassion that stay with us forever.”
For 27 years, Dylan has been a familiar voice on Ottawa’s airwaves — a trusted radio host whose stories, humour, and heart have kept listeners company across stations like Kool FM, CFRA, The Bear, DAWG-FM, and Boom 99.7. But behind the microphone, he had been quietly living with chronic, often debilitating pain from two hernias. After losing his job in a round of industry layoffs last June, he suddenly found himself with something he hadn’t had in years: time to finally take care of his own health.
He knew exactly where to go. Queensway Carleton Hospital wasn’t just the place that successfully repaired his first hernia last January — it was also where one of his life’s brightest moments happened: the birth of his son in 2017.
So when he returned for his second repair on September 15, walking the same hallways felt surprisingly reassuring. “I knew exactly where to go,” Dylan said. “Everyone was just so cool and down to earth. They made it a genuinely positive experience — which is saying something when you’re going in for surgery.”
Over the months of treatment, Dylan and Dr. Gauthier had formed an easy rapport — the kind that can only grow between a grateful patient and a physician who listens. When Dylan mentioned his love of Guns N’ Roses, the idea stuck. On surgery day, accompanied by his close friend and former rock musician Michael Wood, Dylan was stunned — and delighted — to hear the opening riffs of Appetite for Destruction soundtrack his procedure.
“It caught me completely off guard — but in the best, most human way,” Dylan said. “It made the whole experience beautifully comical. It reminded me that the people here don’t just care for you — they care about you.”