Aaron Graves, the president of the Springfield public schools' teachers' union , called Kenneth "K.J." Reid "a living example of modern medicine."
That's because Reid, a chemistry instructor at Springfield High School, was able to return to his classroom in mid-August for the first time in 19 months.
Over that time period, Reid endured 16 surgeries, including amputations of his arms and legs, after being diagnosed with a "flesh eating" strep infection.
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Doctors assumed Reid would have to spend the rest of his life in a nursing home, thinking that he lost so much nerve tissue from the ordeal.
Eyeing Bunsen burners, test tube racks and periodical tables around the lab, Reid, 41, admitted it was "a very emotional" homecoming, just days before students were scheduled to return.
"I felt I had to come back here," Reid said. "For 17 years, I kept telling my students nothing in life worth having is easy."
Even when Reid was in the hospital, said SHS principal Lisa Leardi, one of the first things he pointed out was that he wanted to get back to teaching. Across the district, a throng of supporters, hosting fundraisers and even making a video, became known as "Team Reid."
"It feels like he's come back home," Leardi said. "When you love your job and especially love the people you work with and love the students that you serve, it's a second home for him."
The school district, said Superintendent Jennifer Gill, has provided Reid with a teaching assistant to help with day-to-day tasks and has ensured him of time-off for therapy or to get prosthetics. Workers, Gill added, even configured a parking space in the middle of the school's $123 million reconstruction where his wife, Kenna, can drop him off and pick him up.
Reid will be fitted with myoelectric devices for hands, which work off nerve impulses and are more functional than the hooks he has now.
The prosthetic C-legs have AI systems built in the knees to help him prevent falling in certain ways.
Reid was diagnosed with a virus on a visit to a rapid-care clinic on Feb. 13, 2023. He was turning a shade of blue when his wife later rushed him to Springfield Memorial Hospital.
There, during a four-and-a-half month stay, Reid was so close to death that two nurses were assigned to him around the clock.
It's where his wife and mother, Christianna, kept vigil and two-year-old daughter, Marianna, provided "a ray of sunshine in my life."
The scientist in Reid knew people get nasty bugs all the time, but their immune systems help fight them off.
In his case, Reid said, it was "a very opportunistic disease."
If there's a silver lining, Reid said, it's that doctors figured out how to fight the disease more aggressively from his case. At least 60 people statewide, he's been told, have been saved from the same infection, including a one-month-old baby.
Students and staff, Graves insisted, will see an inspiration in Reid.
"Life is going to kick you down, sometimes really far," Graves said. "It's about getting back up. I've never witnessed anything like (what he's gone through) before."
Reid said he has hung on to some 500 or so letters--and even more emails--from students.
The 12-minute video put together by the school last year "actually made me cry," Reid said.
"The district has been great. The students have been great," he added. "They made an absolutely horrendous experience a little lighter."
C ontact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; sspearie@sj-r.com; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie .
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: 'Back home': After battle with 'flesh eating' strep virus, K.J. Reid returns to teaching
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