COLBY-THE MIRACLE KID

Colby is a 14 y/o who lives in East Texas and is starting 9th Grade at Edgewood High School. He has a great sense of humor and is very athletic--plays multiple sports. His favorite sport is football.

He first came to my office in August, 2005. 7th Grade had been a very tough year for him--very frustrating and challenging. He was found to have ADHD and an Impulse Control Problem. He was started on appropriate medication, and after several adjustments, he had a great 8th grade year. He even made the honor roll at the end of the year.

Things were going along very nicely until April 18, 2006. Colby was lifting weights at school in his offseason football program. He suddenly developed a severe headache and dizziness (he rarely has headaches). He went to lie down for a few minutes. The coach found him diaphoretic (sweating profusely) and with a very severe headache. The headache kept getting worse and worse.

His Mom called our office and he was referred to the ER. He went to Children's Medical Center in Dallas, where a CT Scan of the head revealed a subarachnoid hemorrhage (blood leaking inside his head).

He was subsequently found to have an aneurism (a small bulge, about the size of a pea) in one of the arteries in his brain. The aneurism had ruptured and resulted in the blood leaking inside his head. This leaking blood caused the sudden, severe headache. He had surgery, in which the surgeon opened his skull and repaired the bleeding aneurism.

That was enough to happen to one kid for a lifetime. But.........he wasn't finished yet. He had multiple complications after the surgery. These included the following:

Septicemia (A severe infection that got into his blood stream)
A complete blockage to one of the blood vessels to his brain resulting in a stroke. This caused weakness on one side of his body.
Grand Mal Seizures on 2 occasions.
30 pound weight loss
Hospitalized for 27 days
Was very near death on 2 different occasions.

And now, about the miracle.....

I saw him back in my office July 31, 2006--3 1/2 months after all this started. He looked as though nothing had ever happened--still had his great sense of humor, balance, co-ordination, and intelligence. That's Colby in the picture below. He looks a little short, but he's not. Anyone would look short standing next to 7 footer, Dirk Novinski, from the Dallas Mavericks Basketball team.

So Colby had a spring and summer he'll never forget, but he's now ready to get on with his life--and start high school, where he'll be playing basket ball.

He is indeed a miracle kid!

If you have any comments of ideas of things that would really help you, email me at:

DrJerry@ADHDStrategies.com

I want to help you "be the best person you can be"

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Jerry Rodgers, M.D.