Eight-year-old Jeremiah King is back to playing outside with his neighborhood friends just like he loved to do before he was struck by a car while training for a 5K race with his family on August 10.
His parents, Mike and Brandy King said Jeremiah flourishes when he has the freedom to be a regular kid.
“Physically it’s crazy what he’s able to do,” Mike said. “Jumping on the trampoline, doing flips, and when he’s around his peers, he’s definitely more motivated to do stuff.”
After being at Carle hospital in a coma for a few weeks, Jeremiah was transferred to a rehabilitation center in Chicago at the beginning of September. He returned home in at the end of October.
Since then Jeremiah has been through acupuncture, taken herbal powder and fish oil and music therapy.
“We let him decide to quit music therapy thinking it might encourage him with these other (therapies),” Brandy said.
Jeremiah is now going through neurofeedback training, an alternative therapy, which measures brain activity subconsciously. Once they figure out which areas his therapy needs to focus on, Jeremiah has sensors put on his head to try to balance the brain waves.
“The auditory feedback can measure things deeper in the brain in the cerebellum, which is where we think a lot of his motor and tremor issues are,” Mike said. “The motor function signals get processed through the cerebellum. They get coordinated and smoothed out so you have a fluid motion without the tremor.”
Jeremiah saw a doctor in December, and will go again in June or July. As a homeschool student, he goes to three hours of therapy at Sanagamon Elementary each week. He takes a P.E. class and receives occupational and speech therapy.
He also receives pool therapy once a week.
He recently took the MAPS test at Sangamon, and will attend Lincoln Trail next year.
“Cognitively he’s done amazing,” Brandy said. “They don’t think there are any academic things they will need to tweak for him next year, except maybe the amount of work because he does fatigue easier.”
“What you see is what you get,” Mike said. The tremor and the slowed speech are his two biggest deficits. The tremor effects so many different things. It seems like every muscle on the right side is effected by the tremor. He’s gotten to the point, that the less he thinks about it, the less the tremor.”
Brandy said that if Jeremiah tries to control one muscle, like his hand, then another muscle in the elbow or shoulder will begin to shake.
“The biggest thing with school will be writing,” Brandy said. “He was originally right-handed.” He didn’t like to write anyway, now he’s trying to write with his left hand, and it has a little shake in it when he’s writing.”
At an IEP meeting this week, specialist will try to come up with a plan to help Jeremiah with writing, either through technology or dictating to a teacher.
After Jeremiah was out of the coma, he could read, although was at a slower pace. Since then, his pace and processing speed has improved.
The Kings hope that Jeremiah will take his determined spirit into the classroom. They said that he will compensate for the things he wants to do.
“When it is something that he wants to do, he’s got a determination to see it until he figures out a way to get it done,” Mike said. “Whether it’s opening a wrapper for a piece of candy, opening the door or playing a video game, he usually won’t quit until he gets it figured out.”
Within the last four months Jeremiah has went indoor wall climbing, won a pinewood derby, ran, is playing Challenger Baseball, and he is preparing to go on a camping trip with his Boy Scout Troop.
“He’s always been pretty competitive, but he’s either on one side or the other,” Mike said. “When we were training for the 5K, there were days when we were literally dragging him crying, and then there were other days when he was leading the pack. That day (when he had the accident) he was leading the pack.”
Jeremiah’s physical therapy goal is to get his leg up and bending when he is running. When he’s met this goal, he can take a break from therapy.
He has also decided to get baptized at the Windsor Road Christian Church over Labor Day.
Brandy said that while Jeremiah had an adjustment period when he returned home, they haven’t seen him become upset or angry over what has happened to him.
“Anger or frustration may come later, but he’s fine with it right now,” Brandy said. He’s just go-with-the-flow, laid back like he’s always been.”
