High school student Daniel Alexis experienced the traditional pomp and circumstance of graduation in a non-traditional way on Thursday: from his hospital bed in Miami.
Three counties away, the teenager’s mother, Lina Alexis, walked across the stage at her son’s graduation ceremony in Port St. Lucie to accept his diploma amid loud cheers from her son’s friends. Daniel, dressed in a black cap and gown, watched on a large television screen surrounded by the extensive medical team who has kept him alive.
“We are so incredibly proud of you, your success, what you have endured, and look at how far you have come,” Victor Ospina, UHealth executive director of nursing, said during a graduation party for Daniel put on by staff at UHealth.
It has been an incomprehensible 4½ months for 19-year-old Daniel, who spent much of that time in a coma, or as his doctor describes it, “a grave neurological state.”
Daniel’s ordeal started with a sinus infection.
A dedicated basketball player at Port St. Lucie High School, Daniel hadn’t shown up to practice for a big upcoming game. After a call from the coach, Lina Alexis found her son unconscious on the floor of their home.
It was just two days after Christmas, and doctors at a nearby hospital told Lina Alexis her son’s sinus infection had spread to his brain and he was unlikely to have neurological improvement. He needed to be transferred to UHealth, where a neurology team awaited.
Daniel was airlifted that evening to UHealth, where he underwent emergency surgery.
“It was tough,” his mother said, recalling that evening. “He had a lot wrong with him. I relied on my faith and I prayed.”
Dr. Ashish Shah, a neurosurgeon at UHealth, said he removed Daniel’s skull to take out the infection and give his brain room to expand.
“Because of how long he had been in a coma, we were nervous about his recovery,” Shah said Thursday.
Following the initial surgery, Shah said his team identified the source of the infection within the brain and treated it with antibiotics. The sinus infection had turned into a rare condition known as Pott’s puffy tumor, which left Daniel in a near brain-dead state with no movement in either eye.
“The whole time he was in the coma, I talked to him,” Lina Alexis said. “He is my only child and I told him how much I love him and that I know it is a bad situation, but I am here to fight with you.”
Daniel Alexis and his high school diploma. (UHealth/Courtesy)
Shah said Daniel underwent three operations: The first to take the pressure off his brain, the second to eliminate the source of infection at the base of his skull, and the third to put the bone back in his skull.
For the surgeon, knowing that the brains of healthy young people have neuroplasticity and adaptability factored into surgical decisions.
“We knew we could be aggressive to treat him,” Shah said.
Eventually, Daniel improved and began moving his hands and blinking. Slowly, he has begun to say words.
On Thursday, Daniel said “thank you” to the staff for the celebration.
The event at UHealth marks more than a high school graduation. It also marks Daniel’s transition from in-patient care at the UHealth Tower to acute rehabilitation at the UHealth/Jackson Lynn Rehab Center.
“Physical therapists at UM and Jackson will work with Daniel to overcome limitations,” Shah said. “We expect a good recovery.”
Lina Alexis says she expects a full recovery. “I know he is getting better and will come back to me. He’s a fighter and an athlete.”
In a situation similar to Daniel’s, 15-year-old Aedan Jones also had a sinus infection that led to bacteria seeping into his brain, about the same time in December. Jones, an athlete like Daniel, was operated on at Holtz Children’s Hospital and underwent multiple brain surgeries. Afterward, he received physical, occupational and speech therapy, to regain his full function.
Pediatric neurosurgeons across the U.S. are collaborating to determine why young people have been experiencing sinus infections that spread to the brain more often in the last few years.
South Florida Sun Sentinel health reporter Cindy Goodman can be reached at cgoodman@sunsentinel.com.