Company provides prosthetics for man who lost limbs to infection
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – An infection took his ability to walk, but he’s fortunate that it didn’t take his life. Thanks to a generous donation, a metro young man learning to live without some of his limbs is going to be able to walk the path of recovery.
“At 30 years old, I never would have thought that I would die and been brought back twice,” Dylan Riley said.
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Riley is living a life of gratitude, happiness and humor despite his life being threatened last year.
“I’m never going to let it hold me back,” he said. “It’s not going to stop me from being who I am.”
He was still in the hospital just a few months ago. He landed there about 3 weeks after getting a cut on his knee while trying to get a frisbee golf disc out of the street.
“Tripped up on a curb and landed in the middle of the road and it opened up a pretty good little area right there on my knee,” he said.
So, he cleaned it and bandaged it up.
“I never really thought of anything going wrong,” Riley said.
That was until symptoms set in over time like fever and body aches. One morning three weeks after his injury, he couldn’t move his arms or legs.
“My body shut down,” he said.
He blacked out on an ambulance ride to the hospital, he also flat lined and was revived twice. His mom, Trina White, got a call and rushed to the emergency room.
“I was pretty much hit with, do you want to go on life support or not?” White said.
She quickly decided to keep her son alive.
“We didn’t know that he would make it or he wouldn’t make it,” she said. “It’s one day at a time. It’s my son.”
After about five days, Riley regained consciousness. He found out he had strep toxic shock syndrome from a bacteria that got in his wound and into his bloodstream that shut down his body. He ended up with amputations of his legs and parts of his hands. His life is changed forever, but not his upbeat spirit. Thanks to a Limbs for Life for stepping in and paying for prosthetic legs for him, Dylan will soon walk again.
“I broke down and it was like, Oh, thank you, God bless you,” Riley said.
“He truly is a miracle and we’re blessed,” White said.
You can follow Dylan’s recovery and journey on their Facebook page. His mom made shirts and wristbands with the term “yee-haw” and a cowboy hat on them. She said the term is a response Dylan has said to people his entire life and the cowboy has is a tribute to his western way of life. There are also bracelets with the phrase “his fight is our fight” on them. His mother also encouraged any donations to go to Limbs for Life.
April is limb loss awareness month and Limbs for Life is working with Dylan to fit him for prosthetic legs in the next 3 to 4 weeks. We’ll be sure and follow up with him after he gets them.
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