Dawson's Story
Kari Sherrod is mom to “the happiest person you’ll ever meet in your life.”
Visit her hometown of Fayetteville, Ohio, and you’ll find her son Dawson, 24, grinning ear-to-ear as he rides around the family’s farmette on their golf cart or tractor, roots for his beloved Cincinnati Bengals or enjoys grub at his favorite restaurant, where his picture hangs on the wall.
Even when Dawson woke up in a hospital bed with a tracheostomy – a slit in his windpipe with a tube that connected to a ventilator – he still sported his signature smile.
Life is back to normal in their home, but a recent critical illness nearly took Dawson’s life. He spent six weeks at three hospitals and at one point, his heart stopped. A medical team had to shock Dawson five times to revive him.
The ordeal began when Dawson’s mom found him congested, drenched in sweat and struggling to breathe. She drove him to the local hospital where Dawson grew increasingly lethargic. He was diagnosed with acute respiratory failure brought on by pneumonia.
After attempts to help him breathe with noninvasive ventilation were unsuccessful and his condition worsened, Dawson was intubated and airlifted to Mercy Health – Anderson Hospital.
He was born with Pierre Robin syndrome, a rare birth defect characterized by an underdeveloped jaw, backward displacement of the tongue and a narrow upper airway. He’s had a feeding tube since infancy. Dawson’s narrow airway contributed to his pneumonia because he can’t easily cough up secretions, making it hard to breathe. Then Dawson developed metabolic encephalopathy, a brain dysfunction that can be caused by a number of conditions, including infection.
After a week in the hospital, Dawson was discharged, only to return two days later because he still struggled to breathe because of the secretions.
It was during his second stay that Dawson got the tracheostomy and his heart stopped. Eight days after he returned to the hospital, Dawson’s condition finally stabilized but he remained on the ventilator and was significantly weakened. He transitioned to Select Specialty Hospital – Cincinnati so he could relearn how to breathe and walk on his own.
Shortly after he arrived, Dawson’s physician-led, multidisciplinary team created a personalized treatment plan to help him achieve those goals.
Dawson participated in a regimen of breathing trials that included time off the ventilator while his team closely monitored how his lungs performed. Each day, Dawson was able to breathe more independently. In just 11 days, he no longer needed the ventilator.
His speech-language pathologist connected a special valve to Dawson’s tracheostomy tube that pushed air through his vocal cords. Dawson quickly regained the ability to speak with his family and caregivers and more easily clear secretions from his airway.
At the same time, the physical and occupational therapy teams focused on rebuilding his strength, range of motion and balance. Dawson’s physical therapists had him practice sitting on the edge of the bed to improve balance and reach for objects both near and far, as well as across his body, to build muscle coordination. Activities like fist-bumping and balloon tossing made therapy more engaging, while improving hand-eye coordination and balance.
When he arrived, Dawson was unable to stand even with assistance from two aides. Four days later, a therapy machine helped Dawson transition from sitting to standing and he was upright for the first time in weeks. With his care team holding him, Dawson practiced stepping forward and backward and side-to-side. He walked with a large therapy ball to improve his balance and tossed the ball for coordination.
Soon Dawson could walk 300 feet, holding someone’s hand.
“When he made it to the nurse’s station and everyone was ‘oohing’ and ‘aahing’ and cheering him one, that was huge motivation for him,” Kari said.
In just under one month’s time, Dawson could breathe on his own and with minimal assistance could walk and dress himself. He went back home with his family. Dawson still has his tracheostomy tube; given his narrow airway, physicians thought it best that he keep it for now.
His mother appreciated how the staff rallied around Dawson, especially since this was his first time in an adult hospital. “He likes when people are goofy with him and it was like the staff got that,” she said. “It was like they knew him forever.”