LAKEWOOD – Here’s a pop quiz for you: What can take down a 21-year-old man who is 6 feet 2 inches tall, weighs 240 pounds, and used to be an offensive lineman? Before you answer, you should know a few more clues.

What happened to Nick Sudermann took just hours. It tackled him in his home, knocking him to the floor, where he stayed for three days. When he got to the hospital, he couldn’t breathe on his own. He couldn’t speak and he couldn’t move. For three weeks, the only thing he could move was his big toe.

It took doctors a few days to confirm what hit Sudermann was meningitis, specifically neisseria, group C. Meningitis caused by Neisseria meninigitidis is also called meningococcal meningitis. This is the same type of bacterial meningitis that has been linked to the deaths of five people, many of them in the Fort Collins area. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes bacterial meningitis as an inflammation of the membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord.

Sudermann had no idea he was getting sick when he returned to Fort Collins after celebrating his 21st birthday with his family. The next day, (Wednesday, May 26) he called his mom and told her he had body aches and felt like he was getting a cold or the flu. He stayed home from work and classes at Colorado State University, took some ibuprofen and made sure he drank a lot of fluids. Later that evening, he called home and said he was feeling better.

The next couple of days, Sudermann’s parents didn’t hear from him. They called and sent text messages, but he was known for taking his time returning his calls. By Saturday, they were so worried they started to drive to Fort Collins. That’s when Sudermann’s sister got a call from his roommate, who had been out of town and came home. Sudermann was passed out on the floor and it looked like he had been there for days.

“Nick was hallucinating at that point. He didn’t know where he was,” Tracie Sudermann, Nick’s mother, said.

At the hospital, doctors didn’t know what was wrong either. After ruling out a drug overdose, they realized he was very sick. Tests revealed he had meningitis.

In addition, he was suffering serious problems related to being on the floor of his home for three days. Stuck on his left side, he had a collapsed lung, a blood clot and a wound on his bottom that went to the bone.

Worse yet, because his meningitis hadn’t been treated with antibiotics he developed ventriculitis, which is the inflammation and the infection of the ventricles of the brain. The infectious disease doctor suggested they do a ventriculostomy, which involves placing a tube through the skull to deliver antibiotics directly to the ventricles of the brain.

Tracie Sudermann sent out text messages to friends and family, asking them to pray for her son. The procedure worked and the long and slow recovery began. Nick Sudermann was transferred from Poudre Valley Hospital to Porter Hospital and then Craig Rehabilitation Center in Englewood.

In just a few weeks time, Nick Sudermann has lost 45 pounds.

“It was scary. I looked down and there was a point when my knees were the thickest part on my leg. My thighs were thinner than my knees,” he said.

For the next three months, Nick Sudermann would have to learn how to talk again, how to sit up on his own and eventually how to walk. His mom, dad, sister and little brother would put their lives on hold and spend days in the hospital. Friends of their family and fellow church members set up a huge prayer chain, while Tracie Sudermann kept them posted through text messages.

Tracie Sudermann said one thought kept her going: “I really didn’t believe God kept him alive on his floor for three days and then would allow him to die in the hospital.”

The recovery has been physically and emotionally grueling. Just a short walk across the room at Craig Hospital takes a few minutes and leaves Nick Sudermann drenched in sweat. Every day he battles with his brain to find the strength to move his body.

Nick Sudermann was able to return home a few weeks ago, but he still cannot climb the stairs to his bedroom. He crawls up the stairs and remembers the many days he spent in football practice at Bear Creek High School.

“This has been brutal, not having muscles to walk 200 feet without needing to sit down. It’s been rough, just mentally accepting the fact that I can’t walk 200 feet,” Nick Sudermann said.

He is taking classes online this semester and hopes to return to CSU in January. He also wants to use his experience speaking to college students about the importance of the meningitis vaccine, which he did not have prior to getting sick.

The Sudermann family feels extremely blessed that Nick Sudermann is alive. They say they’ve learned many lessons through this experience. Tracie Sudermann says it’s important that family members become an advocate for their loves ones during any illness, keeping records and a close watch on their medications. The family also has lots of praise and admiration for the nurses they met along the way who treated Nick Sudermann with caring and compassion.

Nick Sudermann has no idea why he survived, but he does know this, “It’s awesome to be alive and have everything work out the way it did.”

For more information on the meningitis vaccine, visit www.immunizecolorado.com.
(KUSA-TV © 2010 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)
written by: Jeffrey Wolf written by: Kim Christiansen