Sitting in his Dr. Pepper pajama pants with his legs stretched out in the living room recliner, Austin Sawyers looks dog tired. He drowsily picks up a Capri Sun and takes a sip, announcing to his ever-watchful parents he’s ready for a nap. But Austin’s sleepy expression masks one determined little boy, one who has just been through the fight of his life.

Austin, a seventh-grade student at East Bernstadt Independent, was diagnosed with streptococcal pneumonia in January. Ever since, his fight against the shockingly virulent bacteria has captured the hearts and prayers of a community.

On Thursday, January 8, Austin’s mom Lesia took her son to the pediatrician.

“He’d been complaining of a headache, a stiff neck and had a temperature of 104 degrees,” she recalled.

As a precaution, the doctor took a strep screen, which came back negative, and diagnosed the boy with Type A flu.

But by Sunday, Austin was not improving. He had woken up disoriented, unsure of his whereabouts, and looked oddly unlike himself.

“I guess it’s just mother instinct,” Lesia said. “I looked at him and he looked hollow.”

Lesia and Austin’s dad, Elmer, took their son to Saint Joseph-London’s emergency room, where he was quickly admitted. Within an hour, Austin was flown to University of Kentucky Medical Center.

“When they said they were flying him off, that’s when I started panicking,” Lesia said.

By the time the helicopter landed in Lexington, doctors frantically started treating the rapidly deteriorating boy. Still unsure of what was wrong with him, doctors pumped him full of more than 18 liters of fluids, trying to flush out whatever was making him sick.

By the time his parents were allowed to see him almost nine hours later, they hardly recognized their son.

“There were tubes everywhere,” Lesia said. “He didn’t even look like himself. And he had these big, black blisters on his feet. The nurses asked us if we had a picture of him so they would know what he looked like.”

Using the culture that was taken at Saint Joseph, doctors were eventually able to diagnose Austin with streptococcal pneumonia coupled with toxic shock syndrome.

“We found out it’s the same strand of strep children have with strep throat,” Lesia said. “But he had it in his bloodstream.”

Doctors said the strep could have entered Austin’s system from a cut or a hang nail. Because his immune system was already compromised from the flu, his body was unable to fight off the bacteria.

Austin spent 10 days in ICU and was put on a ventilator for the first eight. With his kidneys failing, a symptom of the toxic shock, doctors started him on dialysis.

After days of constant care, Austin’s health started to improve.

“Then they transferred him to the children’s floor,” Lesia said. “But he started getting sick all over again.”

A spinal tap revealed the strep had caused meningitis, which caused the lining of his spinal chord to swell and damaged the nerves in the back of his legs. Austin was soon paralyzed from the waist down.

Controlling the meningitis with antibiotics eventually helped the feeling in his legs return, but Austin remained gravely ill. He stayed at UK for 23 days before he was transferred to Cardinal Hill Rehabilitation Hospital.

“But he started getting sick again,” Lesia said.

This time, a nuclear bone scan revealed the strep was attacking Austin’s bones and joints.

A six-week course of antibiotics was prescribed and Austin was kept at Cardinal Hill. Despite the severity of his illness, he made good progress — even resuming his studies through the help of a Fayette County instructor. Five weeks later, on March 20, he was discharged and allowed to return to the beloved East Bernstadt home (and the bed) he had long missed.

Six days later, Austin’s parents took their son back to Cardinal Hill for a check-up. But while there, Austin complained of a headache and felt weak. His speech slurred and he started having trouble remembering words to express himself.

“The doctor said, ‘Take him to UK now,’” Lesia said. “I will tell them you’re coming.”

An MRI revealed Austin had suffered a stroke on his brain stem and showed small lesions on his brain.

“At this point, we were thinking, ‘What is going on?’” Lesia said.

More study eventually determined Austin’s body was now rid of the strep infection. But his immune system had been so over-worked, it had started attacking anything it encountered — hence, the stroke and brain lesions.

“The immune system was fighting his body,” Lesia said.

An immune globulin was given to him intravenously, this time to act as a “reset button” for his immune system, Lesia said.

So far, the treatment appears to be working.

Two weeks ago, Austin was again allowed to return home. He is still too weak to walk and his foot is still healing from the extreme blisters caused by the toxic shock. He is pale and exhausted, but he has had time to play Cabela’s Alaskan Deer Hunt on his PlayStation and on Tuesday a homebound instructor was coming so he could resume his seventh-grade course work. His attitude was also bright.

“I feel a lot better than I did,” he said, smiling.

The Sawyers said the experience has been deeply life-changing.

“It’s really opened our eyes,” Lesia said. “When you’re at home laying all comfy in your bed, there are people sitting in those hospital chairs not knowing if their child is going to live or not. A lot of us take life for granted. God just brought him through. Every doctor who sees him says he’s a miracle. God has brought us through the whole ordeal.”

The Sawyers have also received an overwhelming amount of support by people all over Laurel County, local churches and East Bernstadt Independent, whose students made banners, sent cards and called Austin constantly. Several of Austin’s teachers came to visit him in the hospital, as did Principal James Meding and Superintendent Homer Radford. The school has also hosted two benefit dances and pictures with the Easter Bunny to raise money for the boy.

“The school has just been absolutely great,” Lesia said.

“And I think every church around here was praying,” Elmer Sawyers added. “Each and every person has been great. We just want to thank everybody.”

Staff writer Tara Kaprowy can be reached by e-mail at tkaprowy@sentinel-echo.com.