Ritz making steps toward graduation

Being able to walk at graduation is a goal for many high school seniors academically, but for Kyle Ritz, it is a physical goal as well. A senior at Lind-Ritzville High School, and the son of John and Laurinda Ritz, Kyle is a bilateral amputee. As a double amputee, his case is extra special because the right leg is transtibial, meaning below the knee, and the left is transfemoral, meaning above the knee.

Kyle currently has a pair of prosthetic legs that he wears “occasionally.” They are a little outdated and in need of a boost. He instead, prefers to roll around in a wheelchair, or scoot around on the floor. He said because it’s much faster and doesn’t use as much energy. But he has recently had a change of heart. He has decided that he wants to walk at his high school graduation this spring, so it is time to dust off the “old legs” and get them in working order so he can accomplish that goal.

Kyle was born with both legs but lost them after an illness he suffered as a child. On Saturday, Nov. 22, 1996, the day of his second birthday, he fell ill. After cancelling his birthday party, his concerned parents rushed him to the emergency room at East Adams Rural Hospital. The doctor on call that evening was Dr. Valerie Eckley, she looked over the young child and within 10 minutes, responded by getting him airlifted to Spokane’s Sacred Heart Medical Center where Dr. James Mellema was waiting.

The prognosis finally came around one in the morning, when his parents were begging for answers. The doctors determined that he had Meningococcemia, or bacterial meningitis, a potentially life-threatening condition that can rapidly progress to permanent neurologic problems or death. The physicians responded by administering medication to him, hoping for a positive response. But nothing was working and by Sunday evening, the doctors had nearly extinguished all their resources.

As Laurinda recalls, “The doctors told us they were going to give him one last medication, and if he doesn’t respond to it, we needed to prepare for him to pass away on Monday.”

Luckily he responded, but by Monday morning he was so swollen from the illness and all the medications the doctors gave him, that Laurinda had to sign permission forms for them to release the pressure on his legs.

“Bacterial meningitis clots the blood in your veins and thus blocks the blood supply to your extremities,” Laurinda explained, “We were very fortunate Kyle only lost his legs. His hands and arms have scars and his elbow was really bad, the skin turned hard and eventually black and his legs actually mummified.”

The doctors were not able to amputate until Dec. 18, because they were trying to determine the location of an infection that Kyle had. The infection ended up being in his knee so as a result, the leg was amputated above the knee. During the long waiting period, Kyle’s fragile body was still suffering the effects of the disease. Kyle remained in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for 11 days and then the physicians started waking him up.

“He was fine for a while and then all of a sudden he started puffing back up,” Laurinda said.

The only reasonable explanation Dr. Mellema and his team could come up with was that they had compromised him with Tylenol while giving him morphine. They realized they had accidentally perforated an artery in his chest during a procedure and on Christmas day, Kyle was taken back to ICU, where he remained for another three weeks. During which time, he got a blood disorder and had to be under strict supervision, and only John and Laurinda were allowed in to see him, and they were required to wear masks and gowns.

Laurinda said she recalls when Dr. Mellema explained to the family, “This is a disease that everyone reacts to differently. Bacterial meningitis is like a stealth bomber, and it comes in and Kyle had that niche in his immune system that grabbed on.”

Since no two cases are alike they could not compare Kyle’s case to any other, even though, during their time at the hospital, they met other children with meningitis. Laurinda was looking for answers as to why this happened to Kyle and she asked the physician if Kyle had a weak immune system because he got it. The physician said, because Kyle lived, it meant he had a good immune system. Eighty percent of the children that have meningitis to the severity that Kyle did, do not survive. Kyle is among a rare 20 percent who conquered the disease.

“Everybody goes through something different,” Laurinda said. “And we are very, very fortunate there was no brain damage at all.”

The doctors and therapists that worked with Kyle encouraged the use of prosthetics as soon as he was healed.

“He’s always had prosthetic legs,” Laurinda added. “He actually wore them a lot until the third grade and then he was like, ‘I can be so much faster in a wheelchair’ and so…”

“I’ve pretty much been in that thing ever since,” Kyle added about his wheelchair.

In order to walk with his fellow classmates, Kyle has been wearing his prosthetic legs a couple of times a week. He has to work on stabilizing his balance and simply practice walking, in order to get used to it. He does use a crutch to aid in walking and he said that although he doesn’t really need the crutch, he prefers to have it for security purposes.

He does not often wear the prosthetics due to the fact that they are cumbersome, together they weigh about 13 pounds, and it takes extra time to put them on, and a lot of energy and oxygen are exhausted in order for him to walk in them. Since Kyle has two different types of prosthetics, they go on differently, the left is more time consuming than the right.

“If he wore them more I would be more inclined to go and ask for newer things,” explained Laurinda. “But he is just so much happier in his wheelchair at this point.”

“Or out of my chair,” Kyle added.

“When he was first learning to walk,” Laurinda continued, “one of the therapists showed him how to scoot on his butt and he was off. Before that, he sat in the hospital bed and didn’t do anything or go anywhere. But the minute she showed him ‘this is how you can walk’ then boy, no stopping him.”

To this day, Kyle still uses the scoot method to maneuver around the house and other places where his wheelchair might be in the way. The prolonged use of the wheelchair is also taking its toll on Kyle’s body and he recently had to begin seeing chiropractor, Dr. Warren Kragt.

“When you sit all the time, it screws up your back pretty bad.” Kyle said.

So with the encouragement of Laurinda and Dr. Kragt, Kyle has begun to take the necessary “steps” to successfully complete his dream of being able to walk at graduation by wearing his legs a few times a week or more.

Kyle recently paid a visit to Donald Christenson of Hanger Clinic in Spokane to express his desire to walk across the stage at graduation, using his prosthetic legs. The Hanger Clinic purchased the business in 2000 from Christenson, formerly called Schindler’s Orthotic and Prosthetic Services.

During his visit, Kyle met with Christenson and a special guest, Kevin Carroll, to discuss possible upgrades to his current prosthetics to prompt him to wear them regularly. Carroll, is the Vice President of Prosthetics for Hanger Clinic, and currently travels all around the world providing care for patients that have unique or challenging cases. Carroll is well-known for his work with disabled athletes and animals. He served as a consultant for the movie “Dolphin Tale” in 2011, and played a vital role in the design for the prosthetic tail used for the dolphin.

Carroll observed Kyle in the office with his current prosthetics and determined he definitely needs some improvements like a new comfort flex socket for the left and minor adjustments for the right.

All of Kyle’s medical bills, prosthetics and even his wheelchair are covered by private insurance and the Shriners Hospital for Children, in Spokane, until he is 21 years old. He got his current prosthetics in 2007, and the insurance companies approve upgrades for parts and pieces to maintain the original investment in the legs. Completely replacing them is deemed unnecessary. At the time, the value of the right leg was $13,000 and the value of the left was $23,000, the left costing more because it has the artificial knee. The left leg also needs a removable gel sock, valued at $3,000, to provide comfort to his leg resting in the socket.

Something that is not covered by insurance is a hand control for a car. Laurinda said they have a basic one but it’s similar to a throttle on a motorcycle, and has to be held for the entire time. It gets tiring, so Kyle is only able to drive for about an hour at a time.

After graduation, he hopes to continue his education and is considering special education or early childhood development.

This winter, he will return to the Bronco wrestling team, for his fourth and final season as an athlete. He can also be seen on stage during future high school drama performances and most importantly, walking down the aisle at the 2013 Graduation Ceremony.

“It is very hard, but it is not impossible to do,” Kyle says of his experience. “I have managed to do it and I will continue.”