Nathaniel Pearson is home and learning to walk again.
After 12 weeks of struggling with a near-fatal illness, the young owner of Sporadic Games was released from Topeka’s Stormont-Vail Hospital on Tuesday. Among other damage, the illness cost him some of his fingertips and all the toes on his left foot.
“The doctor said I’ll be able to walk like normal — I just won’t be able to run,” Pearson said Sunday. “Apparently, we only dig in our toes when we run.”
Health problems are nothing new for Pearson, who has a number of chronic blood conditions. But on Oct. 10, something ambushed him.
“I was at the store and I started getting chills and feeling really sick,” Pearson said.
He called in someone to fill in, got a ride back home and took a nap. As he slept, his parents noticed that his ears and nose were turning black. He was rushed to the Newman hospital emergency room, then airlifted to Topeka.
Pearson had contracted a staphylococcal infection and bacterial meningitis, complicated by his blood problems. For several days after his admission, he was kept on a respirator and placed on dialysis after his kidneys shut down.
“It was very touch and go,” said Pearson, who remembers nothing of the first six weeks — and who has been told by family and friends that’s probably for the best.
Doctors amputated some of the infected areas in November. Pearson still receives dialysis three times a week.
Pearson said his doctors think it will be at least mid-February before he walks normally. Once that happens, he said, he will reopen the store.
“He’s doing much better than he was, but there’s still a long way to go,” said Steve Pearson, Nathaniel Pearson’s father.
Because of his chronic conditions, Pearson has no health insurance. His father thanked everyone in the community who contributed to the medical fund for his “million-dollar kid”, which was set up at Bank of America.
“There’s been a very generous outpouring,” Steve Pearson said. “We always knew he was worth a million — we just didn’t think we meant physically.”
hottopics (anonymous) says...
A Miracle story and such a great update on his recovery. I am relieved that he still received such great care without having a insurance policy. Sad that we all cant be worthy of or afford one.
January 8, 2007 at 10:03 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )