Faces of the Games
NICOLAS MERRELL, 5
St. Edward, NE
When the local high school football team adopted five-year-old Nicolas Merrell, they gave him an old helmet to show his school spirit while he helped out at practices and attended games. Even though it was 10 sizes too big, he wore it everywhere.
Nicolas, who is so full of life, shows no sign of ever having ever been on the edge of death.
From the time he was born, Nicolas’ kidney defect caused him frequent hospitalizations. Doctors recommended a kidney transplant and Nicolas’ Dad took the lead and donated one of his kidneys to this future football star. But Nicolas’ troubles didn’t end there. Shortly after the transplant, he contracted a bacterial blood infection and pneumonia and was kept in the hospital for a month before he recovered. “He was in the hospital a lot after the transplant,” Kurt said. “But slowly he began to return to the little boy we knew.”
Then Nicolas was again was rushed to the hospital – this time with West Nile Encephalitis. For ten days his parents watched over him. As he grew weaker, Nicolas lost motor function and needed intubation in order to breath. It took 6 months for him to get well.
A fully recovered Nicolas participated in his first U.S. Transplant Games the summer of 2004 in Minneapolis where he competed in the long jump, 50 meter dash and softball throw. “I think Nicolas’s favorite thing was when he was doing the long jump and the track was lined with people on both sides, and they were all cheering for him,” his father said.
Nicolas is looking forward to the National Kidney Foundation 2006 U.S. Transplant Games, which will take place this June in Louisville. There he hopes to compete in the long jump and 50 meter dash and will go for a gold medal in a swimming competition.
“He’s an inspiration to us all,” says Kurt. “We are all looking forward to seeing what the world holds for him in the future.”
