Go through a day like the Schankies went through on Jan. 20 — a day that began like a nightmare and ended like a storybook — and you might wonder what The Plan is.
That Tuesday morning, Philip Schankie was suddenly, at age 47, fighting a potentially life-threatening ordeal he never anticipated. A mere half a day later, with Philip in the hospital, his son, Kale, was burying the game-winning shot in Madison’s basketball game against Waverly.
Everyone goes through emotion-twisting extremes in their life. But why would one family be yanked to each side of the spectrum in such a short time, before one sunrise can even replace another? It’s happened before, it’ll happen again, and questions about why seem like a natural result.
But to the Schankies — Philip, wife, Kelle, Kale, and Kale’s brothers, Kaleb and Kole — God was on their side. Kale’s game-winning putback injected joy onto the end of a horrifying day, and — on a much higher plane of importance — Philip has made a miraculous recovery from the two strokes he suffered that Tuesday morning. The paralysis on the left side of his body is gone, and if you never met him before today, you’d probably never guess that he went through what he did.
The Schankies consider themselves incredibly fortunate to still be together, a close-knit family of five. They believe their prayers — and the prayers, love and support of their family, friends and the community — are the reasons why.
“It’s a blessing that he’s still here,” Kelle Schankie said, “let alone that he still has everything that he’s got back.”
Kale’s dad, of course, wasn’t in the stands that Tuesday night to see his game-winner against Waverly. The fact that he could still hear about it later at his Kansas City hospital room was plenty for the Schankies.
“Right when I shot it,” Kale said, “I knew I’d made it for Dad.”
Nightmare
Kale, a sophomore, and Kole, a freshman, were already at school that morning. Kaleb, who graduated from Madison last year and, like his brothers, played basketball for the Bulldogs, was in Fort Scott, where he was attending college.
Philip didn’t get out of bed early, as he usually did on Tuesday, but Kelle didn’t immediately suspect something was wrong.
“He’d had gallbladder surgery the week before, and the day before, on Monday, he had worked all day long. So come Tuesday morning, he’s always an early bird and he gets up early. But he wasn’t up yet, and I just thought that he was just tired from working (and) from having surgery, so I thought he was exhausted. But I should’ve known better.”
When Philip still didn’t get out of bed, Kelle finally went to go get him up. As she did, she heard Philip fall against the wall. He couldn’t walk or see.
She called a neighbor, who helped load Philip into the car, and rushed him to the hospital in Burlington. All three boys joined their parents there, and Philip was later life-flighted to St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, Mo.
One stroke on Philip’s brain stem had given him blurred vision, and another one on the right side of his brain paralyzed him on his left side.
“They told me that his paralysis was just a matter of time, and just waiting to see,” Kelle said. “They didn’t know one way or the other for awhile.”
She felt that out of all the boys, Kole was hit the hardest by what was happening, perhaps because he was the youngest.
“I was really worried, and I didn’t know what to think,” Kole said. “I didn’t really talk or anything, and I was just scared.”
The shot
Sometime during the family’s hours in Burlington, Philip made it clear that he wanted Kale, a starter for Madison, and Kole, who plays mostly junior varsity this year, to be available for that evening’s game at Waverly instead of coming to Kansas City with their parents.
“Because they never missed a game,” he said. “They always played in the games... There wasn’t nothing they could do for me up there (but) sit and worry.”
Madison coach Alan Brown was supportive, offering the boys the option of playing that night and gathering both the boys and girls basketball teams in a circle in the gym to say a prayer for Philip and the family.
“We care about each other up here on the court as well as off the court,” Brown said. “Because in these situations, it brings us close together. We have good camaraderie with everyone here.”
Kaleb went to the game in Waverly to support his brothers, and when Kale took the floor, he figured he’d see one extreme or another.
“I knew he was either gonna have the game of his life or one of his worst games,” Kaleb said. “And he played real well, and I was surprised.”
During a night on which he’d go on to score nine points, Kale’s head, naturally, wasn’t totally focused on the floor.
“Just, every night, you can look over in the stands, and he’d be in there, but that night, he just wasn’t there,” Kale said. “I talked to (Mom) before we got there, and she told me he was doing all right, so I kind of got a little bit (relaxed). But still, I was thinking about it the whole game.”
Madison trailed by 14 with just six minutes remaining, but with its full-court press, the Bulldogs sliced the deficit all the way down to 51-50 with 10 seconds left. Madison’s Michael Luthi drove the baseline and had a shot partially blocked. Schankie collected the rebound on the weak side, and scored on the putback with just three seconds remaining to give Madison the 52-51 win. After celebrating with his teammates, and getting a hug from his coach, Kale got to Kansas City as soon as possible.
“Because I couldn’t wait to tell him, because I knew he’d be proud of me,” he said.
Support and recovery
In the month-plus since that day, the Schankies have endured both scares and the triumphs of Philip making progress back toward living a normal life.
He spent five days at St. Luke’s, during which his eye function was lost for two days. Then, after he came home, a staph infection sent him back to Burlington for another week. He’s been through physical therapy, and his recovery has been, in his words, “a miracle.” He’s walking, and his vision is improved. He said his left leg is “probably 80 percent.”
“(The doctors) keep telling me, ‘You’re lucky you’re even here,’” he said.
Philip missed the Lyon County League Tournament, then returned to his first basketball game on Feb. 3, when Kale and the Bulldogs beat Mission Valley 51-45.
“I think he played better when I wasn’t there,” Philip joked. “I couldn’t yell at him, but he knew I was there, I guess.”
The boys have pitched in to provide extra help on the family’s farm until Philip can work again. Kaleb has dropped out of school at Fort Scott to stay home and help out. He plans to try to attend Butler Community College in the fall.
“I’m happy I did it, and I’m helping out with chores and everything, and doing all the work, since Dad can’t,” he said.
The support from the Madison community, the boys’ teammates and Coach Brown have been essential and touching to the Schankies. Kelle was moved when she heard Olpe coach Chris Schmidt take a moment to acknowledge Philip during a radio interview during Philip’s time in the hospital.
“Our community, they took food up to the boys, because they were home,” Kelle said. “Our community and our friends and all the kids, I mean, everybody’s just been wonderful. We had a group of men come up and finish some cattle pens. The boys went out and helped ’em, and they finished welding ’em and putting up our cattle pens, because our cows were getting ready to get out.”
The Schankies, Kelle said, don’t want something like what Philip went through to have to happen for them to appreciate what they have. She said, though, that as a result of what happened, they don’t take anything in life as seriously anymore.
“But I’ve always told the boys,” she said, “it’ll be us five, and it’ll always be us five, no matter what happens. As long as we count on each other and be there for each other, they’ll be fine.”