I don’t know this young man’s name, but I know that he is really lucky to be alive. He’s one of thousands of people across the country who has been attacked by a really frightening infection called MRSA. We had a very scary outbreak of this at Carthage in the fall, and some of our athletes were especially hard hit. One of the worst cases of all involved the starting center on Carthage’s football team who ended up having to undergo surgery when the infection attacked his arm. (There was a very real possibility that he might lose his arm if the infection wasn’t stopped somehow.) Fortunately, his story turned out much more happily than it might have – and rather than ending his season and perhaps even his career, the young man in question made it back to the playing field before the end of the season. (I’m not usually so up-to-date on Carthage’s football team except that this particular guy was in my popular music in america class.) The young man in this photo, a friend of a family friend I met this past weekend, had to be flown by Flight For Life when MRSA attacked his system late last year – and he’s probably lucky to be alive. It’s like something out of a science fiction movie, and it would be almost exciting if it weren’t so terrifying.
Meeting this young man the other night and hearing his story was interesting – especially because I’m going to be doing a morning show interview about MRSA next week – but what especially struck me at the time was thinking about this young man (he’s college age) and two of his buddies sitting there – and of how bewildering it must be for them to be living under the cloud of this kind of threat. And it must be especially strange in that so often MRSA attacks young athletes, whom we think of as the healthiest people around us and who I’m sure tend to think of themselves as rather invulnerable. (And don’t most young people think of themselves as rather invulnerable, even if they’re just a slight, bespectacled member of the chemistry club?)
And yet- this gigantic teddy bear, the likes of which I’ve never seen, whose shirt was signed by his buddies, is a terrific statement of how this young man’s friends rallied around him. . . just like the Carthage football players rallied around the guys who were contending with this frightening threat. The “bugs” may be getting scarier and scarier, but we have each other.