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A Draper teenager was given what was supposed to be a safe teaspoon of a pain medication. Instead, it nearly took his life.
We told you last summer how a prescription mistake threw 18-year-old Jessie Scott into a coma. Today, we catch up with Jessie to update his struggle to survive.
Jessie stared into space, not talking or moving. His parents wondered if he could even hear them. Now, almost seven months later, they get their answer.
"I remember when mom touched my hand and said ‘I love you' and ‘Wake up, Jessie,'" he recalled.
Jessie is out of the coma and talking.
"When he woke up and started crying for me, saying, ‘Mom!,' I mean, we were just blown away. We're going to get one word at a time, then he started speaking full sentences," said Laurie Scott, Jessie's mother.
Jessie talks and moves his head, but the destruction to the motor centers of his brain is critical. Except for limited movement in his left arm, the rest of his body does not respond.
"I think he can get to a point where he's able to drive a power wheelchair, and there are a number of different control systems that can be created to allow him to do that, such as a chin or mouth control," said Dr. Joseph W. Vick Roy, medical director at HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital.
Seven months ago, one teaspoon of prescribed oxycodone hydrochloride was given to Jessie to help him sleep and relieve pain from a strep throat. But instead of 5 milligrams, a pharmacy had accidentally given Jessie's mom an undiluted dosage that allegedly was 20 times what the doctor ordered.
Jessie is just beginning to realize the full extent of what's happened. "I'm furious that the pharmacy did this to me," he said.
Some days are good, but most are bad. When he tried to sit through a movie?
"I couldn't stay for the whole movie. It hurt like crazy. It felt like stabbing in my butt and in my legs," Jessie said.
At this early stage, it's hitting hard psychologically. He cried when he left the theater and saw others his own age looking at him.
Jessie's metabolism goes up and down. He gets sick and vomits. He desperately wants to take care of himself but can't.
"All the things he's had to go through, you know, just haven't been fair to him; and it shouldn't have happened," Laurie said.
"But the fact of the matter is, it has. And we'll make lemonade out of lemons, and we'll go on, and we'll support him, and we'll give him everything he needs that we possibly can," Jessie's dad, Wayne Scott, said.
Sure he's frustrated and cries, but there's smiling and laughter too. This 18-year-old is determined to remain strong, to make the best of where life will take him.
Jessie hasn't lost his sense of humor, nor has his family. He fights to move his legs and right arm, not knowing if they ever will, remembering lines from one of his favorite movies: "Get down. I'll be back," he says.
Jessie will be going home later this month. The family is converting a living room into a bedroom on the main floor, changing floors and remodeling bathrooms. He'll need care 24/7.
E-mail: eyeates@ksl.com
