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Making a comeback
By Ruthanne Johnson
rjohn180@mscd.edu

Photo by Heather Longway-Burke • longway@mscd.edu Kathy, Mark Mather’s mother, assembles a cuff on his arm Nov. 27 in their home. The cuff is an extension tool fitted to the end of Mather’s arms for eating, brushing his teeth and other daily activities.

Metro sophomore Mark Mather had both of his arms and legs amputated after contracting a rare and often fatal bacterial infection called meningococcemia in May. Six months later, he is ready to get on with his life.

After spending almost four months in the hospital, enduring more than 15 surgeries, painful skin grafts and bad hospital food, Mather said he was glad to arrive home to his family, friends and pets in late August.

“It’s not that I’m ungrateful to the hospital staff or anything. They were great. But I don’t think I could have eaten one more turkey-on-rye sandwich for lunch,” he said in good humor.

Since his return home, Mather has had two more surgeries – one because of bone spurs that had formed on the end of his right leg, the other to take out his gallbladder.

“I can’t use a prosthetic on my legs yet because of the bone growth,” he said. He has an upcoming surgery on his right arm due to another bone spur and cannot use the prosthetic arm until the spur has been removed.

Mather was taken to the hospital in May after two or three days of flu-like symptoms that started with a sore throat and nausea. He was subsequently sent home, but soon after, his right arm began to swell.

“Everything gets kind of blotchy after that. I woke up ten days later,” he said.

He was taken by helicopter to the Medical Center of Aurora’s south campus and put on strong antibiotics to kill the bacteria raging through his bloodstream. He then went through dialysis and the series of surgeries began.

“We almost lost him,” remembered his mother, Kathy, as her son recounted how his heart stopped twice while doctors worked on him.

Mather is now concentrating on mending and learning to use his arm prosthetics in physical therapy. He has also become adept at using the extension tools fitted to the ends of his arms for eating, brushing his teeth and other daily activities.

After a recent getaway to Mexico for his brother Matt’s wedding, Mather said it was nice to have a break. Though his gallbladder surgery delayed the trip, once he got there he visited with family, partied a lot and had a great time.

“I was ready for some fun,” Mather said.

Mather is soon to be fitted for his leg prosthetics, and he said he looks forward to the physical therapy, which focuses on learning to walk. Joining Mather for the fitting will be Denver’s Channel 4 News, his girlfriend Lindsey Armstrong and his family.

“I am excited about getting legs,” he said, adding that he’s looking forward to trying his hand at skiing on a mono ski fitted with ski poles for his arms.

While he has been in physical therapy and learning skills with which he can generally function, he has been able to use his computer through a voice-recognition and translation program, Mather said. The program allows him to log online, check and respond to e-mail, and update his blog through voice activation.

“Sometimes just sitting around the house can be boring,” he said. “I also like to play video games for fun, because they’re cool, (they’re) good exercise for the mind.”

He said he also listens to audio books on his iPod to occupy his time.

When asked about his plans for the future, Mather said he would like to continue attending Metro.

“I plan on registering for classes this week, maybe take some history classes online to start out,” he said. History is a possible major Mather is considering.

“But for now I need to focus on healing and learning to use the prosthetics. I remember when a friend told me that home is where the healing begins, and I still have some of that to do.”

To read learn more about Mark Mather and read his blog, log onto his website at www.markmatherfund.com.