BY: BRYANNA STOIBER, Editor
Mr. James McKnight is an Earth-Science teacher at KHS. To some students, he’s just a teacher. To others though, He’s a caring and selfless friend, such as Sydney Luse. She felt that her and Mr. McKnight had a close relationship in class, as well as her older sister in previous years.
Mr. McKnight’s life had taken a turn over the summer with an experience that had put his life in a whole new perspective.
It started with his pet rat “spunky” when she had developed a tumor on her stomach, which she had also bitten McKnight on his right thumb, as she was convulsing.
McKnight, knowing what to do in these certain situations, let water run onto the wound, washed it with soap, and applied a bandage with antibiotic ointment. Things seemed fine for him as the wound was healing, so he let it be.
Big mistake for McKnight. His poor pet rat “Spunky” passed away two days after the bite. A couple of days after he had buried her, he started feeling slightly ill, but no big deal. Day 6 after the bite, he felt as if he was starting to develope flu-like symptoms.
The next day, Saturday, July 14th, was when things got out of hand. “How could I have known how close to death I would come that day?” McKnight said. His flu-like symptomss had gotten worse, and later in the day, he decided it was time to get things checked out. His daughter, Elissa, had came to his house, to find McKnight partly in the hallway and partly in the bathroom. His daughter, Elissa, is an LPN; she took his temperature which was normal. He ended up consenting to Kishwaukee Hospital’s emergency room, his daughter driving him there.
Eventually, after getting settled in the hospital, it started going downhill from there. Luckily, Elissa had mentioned to the doctors about the rat bite, so they had a better idea of what they were looking for.
The bacteria infection that he caught was very similar to the bubonic plague, or “black death” that decimated Europe hundreds of years ago.
Due to his condition and the chances he had with the illness, their one and only chance to save his life was a continuous dialysis of his blood.
Early next morning, McKnight’s doctor called his neurologist, because he needed a neurologist to declare him brain-dead, as everyone thought he would be. The doctors and nurses were in constant communication with his whole family; they suggested that all family members say their good-byes to him and to get all the finances in order, because there was only about a 10% chance of his survival.
“The doctor told me that when he first saw me, my right arm was black all the way from his fingers to his elbow.
“Miraculously, and I really mean it when I use that word, I lived,” said McKnight. Even though his heart was operating at only 15% normal, he still pulled through.
“The doctors told my family that even if I survived, I might face a 40% reduction in IQ. It’s funny, but my parents said that when Ms. Beck heard that, she said that I could probably afford that loss and still be okay!” said McKnight.
After about five weeks, McKnight was alert enough to start dreading the dialysis which was what was keeping him going. Due to the condition of his kidneys from the incident, his daughter, Elissa, quickly volunteered to donate one of her kidneys to him.
When McKnight finally got to come home at the end of August, he was still quite weak, sick, and miserable, and still had to go through dialysis three times per week. Fortunately a couple of weeks later, it was determined that his kidney function had increased to 50%, so he was released from dialysis. “I cried when I heard the news, mostly because I was so happy, but also out of pity for all the people who would have to continue receiving dialysis for the rest of their lives,” said McKnight.
As weeks went by, McKnight started to regain more and more strength and capability physically and also mentally. “I consider myself to be unworthy of such kindness and unworthy of having been so miraculously saved from almost certain death,” McKnight had said. “I believe, however, that hundreds probably thousands of people have been touched by my experience; I now look forward to several more years at Kaneland, and I thank all of you who have been a part of my journey.”