USA TODAY US Edition

Battling back

Ark. high schooler returns from rare syndrome

- Jim Halley

Three days before Christmas, Makenna Vanzant and her Farmington, Ark., High girls basketball teammates dropped off 23 Christmas stockings to the Arkansas Children’s Medical Center. Vanzant, the Cardinals’ sophomore point guard, was glad to be back, this time as a visitor.

Just one month earlier, Vanzant had been a patient at the hospital, struggling for her life with hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a condition that destroys blood platelets and can lead to anemia and even kidney failure because it damages the small blood vessels of the kidney. She’s back to playing basketball, but her bout with HUS has increased her appreciati­on for her health, her family and her tight-knit community.

Vanzant started as a freshman last season, averaging 15.5 points a game, and made the 5A all-state team while helping the Cardinals to the state semifinals. She worked hard to add muscle in the offseason and in June was voted as one of the top newcomers in the state. Though only 5-8, she had scholarshi­p offers from Division II programs, and several Division I programs showed interest.

The morning of her team’s practice Oct. 18, a little over a month before the start of the season, she texted her mother, Monica, to tell her she was sick to her stomach. She practiced that afternoon, but that night, still sick, she woke her mother at midnight. The next morning, Monica texted Farmington coach Brad Johnson to tell him Makenna wouldn’t be at school.

“That morning, I took her to the doctor and they immediatel­y told us to take her to the emergency room,” Monica said.

Thirty minutes after going to Washington General Medical Center in Fayettevil­le, she was rushed to Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock about three hours away. For five days, doctors thought she had inflammato­ry bowel disease, but her condition worsened and she was placed in intensive care. While she wasn’t in pain, she was listless, as if she had a bad case of the flu.

But her systolic blood pressure rose to a dangerousl­y high 180 at one point. Doctors prepared the Vanzants for the worst and told Monica it might be a good time to make phone calls to family members.

Vanzant was on the verge of turning

16 and her situation was sobering to her teammates.

“Teenage kids don’t think about their own mortality,” Johnson said. “This type of incident slaps them in the face. Makenna is never sick, never injured, never misses school. For her and the team to see her going through that was difficult.”

It wasn’t easy for Johnson, either. In

2001, he was coaching the boys basketball team at Elkins, 18 miles east of Farmington. On Dec. 14, his team had an early pregame meal, then stopped at the house of player Matt Clark to shoot baskets when Clark collapsed and was taken to the hospital. That night, shortly before the team was preparing to step on the court, Johnson learned that Clark had died of a heart condition.

“I was a 25-year-old head coach,” Johnson said. “I wasn’t ready to deal with that situation. When this whole situation began to go down with Makenna, it felt like déjà vu to me, which was absolutely terrifying. Fortunatel­y, from that experience, I gained perspectiv­e on where players’ minds go and what the community needs in those situations.”

A prayer vigil at Farmington’s gym was organized Oct. 26, the day Makenna went into the intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital. Several hundred packed the gym, some from other high school teams.

Two days after Makenna went to the hospital, Farmington’s football team sent out a tweet, with the hashtag #22strong, showing a team photo of players holding up two fingers in each hand to honor Makenna, who wears No. 22. Soon, other schools returned with their own team photos and the hashtag #22strong.

Makenna, her mother, her father, Ryan, and her younger brother, Cameron, were inundated with cards, get-well wishes and gifts of food. Teams from across the state visited her.

By the time she went into the ICU, doctors diagnosed her with HUS, which can also affect other organs, such as the heart or brain, because of the damage to tiny blood vessels.

Most HUS patients recover complete kidney function, but in severe cases, it can be fatal. It most often affects those with lowered levels of immunity, such as children younger than 5 or adults 75 and over, not healthy 15-year-olds.

On Oct. 30, Makenna was well enough to be moved out of ICU. Two days later, she responded well to another blood transfusio­n and her lab numbers were much improved.

“The day before my birthday, they told me I would get to go home soon,” Makenna said. “Then on my birthday (Nov. 2), I woke up and all the doctors were telling me happy birthday and that I should be able to go home that day. Then they threw a surprise birthday party for me. I was super shocked.”

Makenna was discharged that afternoon.

Makenna had lost 15 pounds. Even though she was well enough to be home, she had to take blood pressure medication and was on a specific kidneyheal­thy diet that made it hard for her to gain weight.

Johnson sat her down and told her he wouldn’t let her practice or play until he knew for sure she was ready.

“She’s so driven,” Johnson said. “But she made a promise to me she would put away the toughness and be as honest with how she felt as she could.”

She progressed to practicing with the team for one minute in non-contact drills. The minutes gradually increased to the point she could do one-on-ones, then two-on-twos, then five-on-five with the scout team, then with the varsity.

The week of the Cardinals game with their big rival, Prairie Grove, Vanzant entered the game with two minutes left in the first quarter and her team up 11-0.

When she entered the game, both sides of the gym stood and cheered, including the Prairie Grove fans. When she hit her first shot, the gym erupted.

“It brought tears to my eyes standing there to see it,” Johnson said. “At that moment, it wasn’t about crosstown rivals. (Cardinals sophomore wing) Joelle Tidwell couldn’t contain herself and she was clapping while she was on the floor and I had to tell the players to get back on defense.”

Vanzant progressed faster than anyone anticipate­d. She hit the winning shot in a 65-62 defeat of Beebe on Dec. 1. Seven days later, before a Tony Chachere tournament game at Farmington against Pea Ridge, the opposing Blackhawks presented her with a bouquet of flowers and candy. Makenna scored 12 points in a 74-34 win. One day later, she led Farmington with 17 points in a defeat of Huntsville in the championsh­ip game of the Tony Chachere.

Makenna still has to take blood pressure medication, her kidney functions are tested regularly, and, in other ways, normal has changed for her.

“I see things in a different view,” Makenna said. “I’m just blessed.”

 ??  ?? Makenna Vanzant (22) of Farmington, Ark., returned to the court after landing in the ICU with hemolytic uremic syndrome. ANDY SHUPE/NWA DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Makenna Vanzant (22) of Farmington, Ark., returned to the court after landing in the ICU with hemolytic uremic syndrome. ANDY SHUPE/NWA DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

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