Remarkable recovery steps

Luke Holko

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Luke Holko, 4 year old, Greene Township boy who was struck by a baseball during a Mahoning Valley Scrappers game.

By ED RUNYAN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

Two months into his recovery from being hit in the back of the head with a baseball at a Mahoning Valley Scrappers game, Luke Holko has made remarkable progress.

But Nov. 5 was a special milestone: the day Luke returned to Trumbull County for the first time since the accident to live with his parents at his grandmother’s house.

His mother, Nicole, brought Luke into the house and put him on the floor.

“He was rolling around, smiling and laughing. You just knew he was where he wanted to be. That was the most he had moved in the first two months,” she said Tuesday at a press conference at Akron Children’s Hospital, where Luke began receiving intensive outpatient physical therapy Nov. 6.

Luke, 4, who suffered a fractured skull and an injury to his cerebellum and brainstem, easily could have died from the Sept. 2 injury. He was in critical condition for about three weeks as brain swelling subsided.

At a press conference Sept. 24 at Akron Children’s Hospital, Luke’s doctor and mother said the boy was breathing on his own, moving his arms and legs but couldn’t communicate. He appeared to laugh or smile when certain people spoke to him, Nicole said.

Seven more weeks and many hours of physical, occupational and speech therapy later, Luke now can sit up and hold up his head with a little support from others, his primary physical therapy doctor, Micah W. Baird, said.

With a little more support, Luke can stand up, ride a special tricycle and take steps, Dr. Baird said. Luke is receiving five hours of therapy daily.

One of the functions of the cerebellum is to serve as a relay center for movement and sensation between the brain and parts of the body. It also coordinates movement of the face, mouth and tongue for speaking, Dr. Baird said.

Luke can’t speak, but he does make sounds, and he can indicate yes or no with help from special toys and by nodding his head yes or no. He can’t swallow, so he’s being fed with a tube in his stomach.

“I’m pleased with the recovery Lucas has made so far just two months since his injury, and I expect him to continue to make gains at a similar rate in the near future,” Dr. Baird said.

He said Luke’s current phase of intensive physical therapy likely will last a few more months. Then he’ll probably receive about three hours of daily therapy, some of it closer to home.

As with the doctor who spoke about Luke seven weeks ago, Dr. Baird said it’s not clear how much normal function Luke will recover.

“I can’t predict exactly what he will be able to do in a year from now, for example, but I know he’s going to continue to gain [functionality],” he said.

“I do have hope he will walk and talk and hopefully ultimately swallow, but it’s really hard to predict,” he said.

As for Nicole, she has begun to think of her son’s future in terms similar to having a newborn. It took her son a couple of months to hold up his head when he was a baby, and it took him a couple of months to hold it up after the accident. Luke walked at eight months, so she wonders if he also might walk again on his own in five to six more months.

Intellectually, Luke is fine, Dr. Baird said.

“Fortunately, he does not appear to have any injury to the cortex part of the brain, which controls thinking, personality and decision-making. I can’t imagine how frustrating it must be to him, who has no impairment in his ability to think but has significant impairment in his ability to move, interact, swallow, communicate,” Dr. Baird said.

Nicole said later Luke doesn’t appear to be frustrated very often, however, instead “pretty calm and collected.”

She added, “He enjoys coming to the hospital, riding the bicycle. He just comes here and has fun.”

Dr. Baird said Luke eventually will go to school, even if he needs help communicating or walking.

Nicole says helping her son recover has been difficult.

“I haven’t heard my son speak in 2 1/2 months, and that’s really hard,” she said.

But she’s had tremendous support from family, friends, and strangers sending e-mails and praying for Luke. And she’s been heartened by seeing improvement in Luke every day.

“He’s significantly different than where he was when we first started this,” she said. “He’s home, he’s happier. He’s making wonderful progress here. He’s really flourishing in the past weeks, for sure.”

runyan@vindy.com