How Tennessee teen lost his hands and feet after rare post-flu infection

While catching the flu can be miserable, it’s usually not life-threatening for the otherwise young and healthy.

But a 14-year-old Sumner County boy’s bout with the virus this summer led to an extremely rare blood infection that ultimately forced doctors to put him on dialysis and later amputate both of his feet and hands.

Mathias Uribe remains in an intensive care unit at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, where he’s been for more than two months, and faces the prospect of long-term medical care and physical rehabilitation.

That said, the boy’s parents say he is in good spirits, all things considered.

“I’ll be honest with you, I don’t know how he does it,” said Mathias’s father, Edgar Uribe. “He is so strong. He always has a smile on his face. He has his moments, and he’ll cry, which is normal. But he’s always asking, ‘When can I get out of here? When does rehab start? When am I going to get prosthetics?’ Getting back to school is his main worry.”

Mathias Uribe, a track and field runner heading into high school, had no underlying health problems when he fell ill in June, his doctors and parents say. He just happened to be extremely unlucky.

Doctors say Mathias needs two more surgeries and more skin grafts before he can be discharged. After that, he’ll need inpatient physical rehabilitation for another four to six weeks. The family hopes he can be home by Christmas. The boy hopes to restart school in January.

A rare summer flu, then a rarer medical ordeal

Mathias started feeling sick around June 20, his father said. After a trip to the doctor’s office, he was told he likely had influenza. His symptoms — fever, diarrhea, vomiting — did not improve, and ultimately the family took him to the emergency department at TriStar Hendersonville Medical Center.

That was the beginning of his medical ordeal.

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There, he was diagnosed with pneumonia and was put on oxygen. He soon went into cardiac arrest for six minutes, though medical staffers were eventually able to get his heart beating again on its own. He was then flown to TriStar Centennial Medical Center in Nashville.

From there, he was quickly transferred to the Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, where he was provided with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) treatment, a type of life support in which a machine replaces the function of the damaged heart and lungs.

He was on ECMO for 12 days and on a ventilator for two weeks, his father said. He was also put on dialysis because his kidneys were failing.

During this process, Mathias developed streptococcal toxic shock syndrome, an infection more common in people 65 and older. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it typically affects about 20,000 people a year in the United States.

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As a result of all of this, blood wasn’t flowing adequately to his arms and legs, said Dr. Katie Boyle, a pediatric intensive-care unit physician who treated Mathias. Additionally, the toxic shock was causing his immune system to overreact and attack his body, Boyle said.

“When he was on life support, we could see that his extremities had a dark color and didn’t look like they were healthy, but we were hopeful they might recover,” Boyle said. “Over time, it became clear that there were parts of his extremities that would not recover.”

Doctors eventually removed his left leg above the knee, his right leg below the knee and both of his hands. Boyle said such complications, especially in the young, are almost unheard of. She added that the family did everything it could to get the boy adequate treatment.

“He’s been through 12 surgeries at this point, and he has two more to go,” Edgar Uribe . “Hopefully, that’ll be it.”

Hope and recovery

As word of Mathais’ condition has spread on social media, so has the outpouring of support from around the world. The family, which recently moved to Nashville from Miami, has heard from people from all over the United States, their former community and the Nashville region, Edgar Uribe said.

“All over the world we’ve been hearing messages and from people wanting to help and to pitch in,” Uribe said. “And, as devastating of a story it is, I see the beauty of it, too. Everyone has just come together to help. And I have conversations with (Mathias) and I tell him there’s so many people out there that are so excited to see what he’s going to be able to do when he gets out of (the hospital).”

The family has set up a GoFundMe page to raise money to help with Mathias’ ongoing medical bills and the work the family will have to do on their home to make it accessible for the boy. The #MiracleforMathias page has already raised more than $301,000 of its $500,000 goal.

Mathias hopes to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and become an engineer, according to his family.

“That’s where he has his head at. He’s just focused on his future,” Uribe said. “He’s positive he’s going to get through this, and we’re going to help him get through this.”

Frank Gluck is the health care reporter for The Tennessean. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @FrankGluck.

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