The KJ Reid Story: One Man’s Battle to Beat the Odds

High school honors chemistry teacher KJ Reid didn’t get sick. Not as a child. Not as an adult. Then in February 2023, his healthy streak came to an abrupt and dramatic end.

“He was my child with perfect health,” said KJ’s mother, Chris Reid. “Up until the time he went to Memorial, a tooth extraction was the biggest thing that ever happened to him.”

After a normal day at Springfield High School, on Monday, Feb. 13, 2023, KJ headed home. When he woke up the next morning feeling flu-like symptoms, he went to Memorial Care and tested negative for strep, COVID-19 and influenza. Diagnosed with a virus, KJ headed home for a regimen of practical remedies: rest, Gatorade and ibuprofen. He quarantined in bed all day to protect his family from the virus.

“But I just kept feeling worse and worse,” KJ said. “My wife, Kenna, called me downstairs to help watch our daughter while she left for class. When she saw me, my lips were blue because my oxygen was being cut off. I knew I was in bad shape.”

Kenna Reid packed KJ and their then 13-month-old daughter, Mariana, into the car and rushed to the Emergency Department at Springfield Memorial Hospital (SMH). After extensive tests and bloodwork, KJ was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis or Group A Streptococcus, an extremely rare and serious bacterial infection, also known as “flesh-eating strep.”

He was in a fight for his life, but a lifesaving team came together quickly. The SMH physicians and care teams, Springfield Clinic physicians and SIU Medicine plastic surgeons and dermatologists were up for the battle. The first week, he had 17 IVs. The bacteria were destroying his tissue, and IVs were falling out with his skin. Two RNs were assigned to him 24/7 to refill medications and redo IVs.

His prognosis was bleak, but he refused to quit. He survived a lengthy list of health crises including cardiac arrest, intubation and being on a ventilator. He suffered kidney and liver failure. His hands and feet turned black as the soft tissue infection systematically destroyed muscle, fat and skin tissue. He would go on to have 16 surgeries, including amputations of his hands, feet, arms and legs. Thankfully, he remembers very little of those first weeks.

“If it wasn’t for the ICU docs and the ICU nurses, KJ wouldn’t be here,” KJ’s mother said. “They really, really cared about him. They were so invested in his survival.”

Tadd Schroeder was an ICU supervisor during KJ’s five weeks in intensive care. He remembers the complexity of the care required and the emotional investment of his ICU care team in KJ’s survival.

“KJ’s case was one we will never forget,” Schroeder said. “He was sick with something so simple – strep – and it became so severe so rapidly. He was truly a fighter.”

During KJ’s time in the ICU, his students sent in cards and decorations for his hospital room of the periodic table elements spelling out his name. An ICU nurse brought in a personal TV streaming device for his use. KJ’s family and care team grew close and spent time talking about the physical, social and emotional challenges ahead as he continued to grow stronger.

When KJ was transferred out of ICU to 2G, a surgical unit room, the ICU team would visit several times a week to check in and support him and his family.

He was a living miracle, and his students, colleagues, friends and family as well as the care teams at SMH celebrated when he was finally discharged after four and a half months of hospitalization.

“Our joy was seeing him get better and returning to the classroom to teach again and be there for his young child and wife,” Schroeder said.

But that was just the beginning of the work ahead. KJ would tackle outpatient rehabilitation at Memorial Care on Koke Mill with the same determination he had shown in the ICU. Except this time, it would be his rehabilitation team right beside him helping him to relearn how to walk and navigate daily life as an amputee.

*This is the first part of a series on KJ’s recovery. Check in later this summer to see how Memorial Care physical therapists are helping him on his journey.