|THE REMARKER |life| May 12, 2017 |
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CHRISTIAN CORTES SKIN INFECTION
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Still going strong
ying on a cold hospital bed, Christian Cortes ’15 bears a flurry of emotions: anger, confusion and excruciating pain. Just outside the room, a doctor delivers a few words to Cortes’s father in a hushed corridor. They take a moment to sink in. ...Patients like that just don’t make it. The giant rash that engulfed almost half of Cortes’s body first began as a golf-ball-sized lump on his left thigh in mid-February. Soon, Cortes developed what he considered to be “the worst headache and stomachache of his life,” as well as a number of flu-like symptoms. Despite these conditions, Cortes still attended an ultimate frisbee tournament in Oklahoma that weekend. “I had a 103-degree fever, and at that point I didn’t feel too bad,” Cortes said. “The bump at this point was larger, golfball size, but I thought that was from inflammation, so I said I would go.” In less than 48 hours, the tiny lump transformed into a frisbee-sized rash. “I felt some stiffness,” Cortes said, “and realized I was having trouble walking. I remember it just being one of the worst nights of sleep I ever had. I was up, dehydrated out of my mind, and I didn't want to tell anyone because they all had a huge tournament.” Recognizing the gravity of the situation, Cortes’s teammates took him back to Dallas, and his mother rushed him to an urgent care center. “As soon as the games finished, they literally had to drive the car onto the field,” Cortes said. After being transported to the hospital at 1 a.m., the medical staff identified Cortes in a state of septic shock, an infection causing organ THIS failure and dangerSCHOOL HAS SAVED ously low blood pressure, and they MY LIFE began operating on IN MORE WAYS THAN him immediately. Struggling ONE, MORE WAYS THAN through some of the worst pain of his YOU CAN life, Cortes endured IMAGINE. — CHRISTIAN numerous medical procedures all within CORTES a couple of days. Eventually, he needed to be put under the knife. “That first time I was just so confused. I didn’t know what septic shock really meant,” Cortes said. “I didn’t feel
bad. The pain was there, but I didn’t feel like I was dying. I didn’t feel sick or anything. I just felt lost and very tired.” The doctors outlined the inflamed tissue, which had now masked most of his lower left body, in sharpie marker. They planned to remove all of it. “They told my dad that they were going to have to cut all the tissue in essentially my whole left leg and wherever it spreads to,”Cortes said. While Cortes was being left in the dark, his father and family were extremely worried about his near-death condition. “So my dad went home, and he doesn’t drink at all. He drank,” Cortes said. “And he called the entire family to get ready to come, and he called my priest to come get me an anointing of the sick. He broke down.” Miraculously, the next day, all their prayers were answered. The infection had receded an inch from the unpromising sharpie marks. The antibiotics had started kicking in, and the doctor told Cortes that surgery was no longer necessary. Relieved, Cortes set out on the slow path of recovery, and after a few weeks, he was officially discharged from the hospital, unshaved and weighing 20 pounds lighter than before. “Three weeks passed by, and at this point my movement had gone pretty well,” Cortes said. “One of the lumps went completely down overnight, but then it started hurting.” Playing it safe, Cortes decided to consult his doctor. “He just looks at it, and he said, ‘I hate sending people to the ER, but given the fact that they had no idea what caused it last time, we’ll have to send you to the ER,’” Cortes said. And so Cortes once again found his way into a nursing bed. “The surgeon came in, and he said, ‘We’re going to operate on you. I think you have a flesh-eating disease, but we’ll take it out. It should be fine,’” Cortes said. Waking up three hours after the surgery, Cortes had again been saved from life-threatening circumstances. “Then the doctor literally said, right then and there, ‘If you had waited until Monday, you’d be dead,’” Cortes said. fter a two-month roller coaster of surprises, tremendous pain and recovery, Cortes was finally discharged from the hospital for the second time and started returning to his normal life.
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A deady infection on his leg forced Christian Cortes '15 into a three-week battle for his limb — and his life.
A FAMILIAR FACE A mentor and friend, Coach Phillips surprises Cortes with a visit as he recovers from surgery, bringing a volleyball as a token of good times spent together.
Throughout the entire wild sequence of events, Cortes found himself with an overwhemling amount of support. “It means a whole lot when you’re at essentially your worst and most vulnerable moments to have people by your side and having a million people saying that they’re praying for you,” Cortes said. But most significantly, Cortes treasures the tremendous support he received from all over the school community. A huge number of his former classmates helped in a variety of different methods. Among them were Kyle Weinstein ‘15 and Shourya Kumar ‘15, whose fathers worked at Cortes’s hospital. “Specifically, I got better treatment at the hospital because of St. Mark’s connections,” Cortes said. “I had the best doctor and surgeon because two kids in my grade have dads at that hospital.” ortes not only received support from his friends and family, but also from many other members of the school community. He had a visitor almost every day. “A bunch of staff came," Cortes said. "[Thomas S. Adams Master Teaching Chair John] Perryman came, [Director of Alumni Relations] Alex Eshelbrenner came, Coach [Dwight] Phillips came,
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STORY ALBERT LUO, NATHAN HAN PHOTO CHRISTIAN CORTES
STORY ALBERT LUO, NATHAN HAN PHOTOS COURTESY CHRISTIAN CORTES
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then [Headmaster David] Dini sent flowers, my scholarship program came—it was just great." Ultimately, Cortes believes he could not have made it through his struggles without the massive amount of help from everyone. “With an infection where you have no idea what happens, the fact that I was able to be discharged and keep my leg, that’s not something that I think came because my surgeons were good or because my doctors were good,” Cortes said. “That came by luck that came by the grace of God, that came through a lot of people having me in their thoughts, having me in their prayers.” From this experience, Cortes has learned to love life. “It’s just changed my perspective on life and people as a whole,” Cortes said. “When you almost got your leg chopped off, you don't want to take any of that for granted anymore.” Furthermore, Cortes acknowledges and thanks everyone standing by his side, including the entire school community. “I owe a ton to St. Mark’s—almost everything. An absolutely huge thank you," Cortes said. "I truly couldn’t have gotten through this without them.”