Brain surgery threatened his life, now this Wilmington basketball player is thriving

Josiah-Pierre Theon Heyer was coming off an emotional high.

Fresh off playing in an All-Star football game in Texas in 2022, the then 6-foot-4, 280-pound 13-year-old showcased his bulldozing skills like he had so many times before, and his father received a commemorative plaque weeks later in the mail.

But as Josiah's father went to give his son the trophy recognizing his achievement, something was wrong. Unable to move his left arm or leg, Josiah suddenly realized that he had become paralyzed on the left side of his body.

"We were hoping that it would dim down, but it didn't," Josiah said of his symptoms. "I couldn't move my left leg at all."

Rushed to the hospital and then transferred to another more advanced facility by helicopter, doctors revealed the teenager had a sinus infection that had spread to his brain.

The next month was spent in the hospital, where Josiah underwent nearly 10 surgeries to remove portions of his skull in both the front and back of his head.

Even today, he doesn't have those pieces of his head back; instead, he received a synthetic implant.

Now nearly two years removed from his extended hospital stay, Josiah is a freshman at Wilmington Christian Academy, where he plays on the school's basketball team, constantly working to regain the skills he once used to dominate his competition.

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The surgery

Several days before being rushed to the hospital, Josiah's mom pulled him from school as he wasn't feeling well. A doctor's visit resulted in some advice to take medication to reduce the swelling but no indication of a severe problem.

Josiah began noticing swelling around his face days later, eventually forcing his left eye shut. While he didn't know exactly what was happening, the teenager says he never imagined it was anything serious.

"They didn't think it was anything too severe," he said. "I thought it was all going to be good."

Initially taken to New Hanover Regional Medical Center, Josiah was transferred via helicopter to UNC Medical Center in Chapel Hill. It was there that doctors performed scans and discovered a sinus infection had spread to his brain and needed to be cleaned out.

While doctors used varying techniques to clean the infection without surgery, a craniotomy (the surgical removal of part of the skull to temporarily expose the brain) was eventually required.

"I was scared because I didn't know it was going to be like this," Josiah said. "I've had sickness problems before, so I thought it would just go away. But then I ended up in the hospital, so I couldn't think of what was going to happen."

Josiah's family, who relied on their faith to get through the challenging time, were devastated by the situation.

"I was just wondering why my son had to be going through something like this," Josiah's father, Perry, said. "It was numb, but we pulled on our faith, knowing this too shall pass."

After the surgery, Josiah was left missing a portion of his skull that stretched across his forehead. Another piece of his skull was removed in the back of his head, this time much smaller.

Doctors ruled that the removed pieces of his skull could be infected and decided not to reattach them. Instead, he would receive an implant that included four hexagonal plates and a synthetic flap.

The comeback

Released from the hospital with a tube in his arm to help facilitate blood flow to his heart, Josiah was crippled by muscle atrophy and dozens of stitches.

While he initially wanted to get back into football, it would take time before he was medically cleared to return to sports. The 15-year-old says he feels like he's 100% recovered is and getting closer to being physically back to normal as well.

Wilmington Christian JV boys basketball coach Craig Tucker says Josiah has already made significant strides at the school.

"He is so stinking strong that any contact he makes with anyone, they fly," Tucker said with a chuckle. "He gets foul calls that are maybe unfair. He's worked hard to get (Where he is)."

Now 6-foot-5 and over 300 pounds, Josiah wears a size 20 shoe and wants to eventually get back to playing football in some capacity.

Even during the most grueling times in the hospital, the Heyer family said their faith gave them the strength to persevere.

"As a man of faith and his dad, I didn't have the option (of feeling hopeless) in my head," Perry said. "We were gonna win, it was just a tough road to get to the win.

"We have our sports and things that hold high value in our heads, but life is something you can't train to get back. Once life is over, it's over. You can't go back and rewind, so (This situation) has given me an overappreciation of life."

Throughout his entire experience, Josiah says understanding how fortunate the outcome is reminds him to remain thankful.

"Going through something like this, it's a lot," he said. "You've got to be grateful for it because you just got brought out of something that could have killed you. There are going to be things in your life that you don't want to do or are annoying, but you have to be grateful because they're nowhere near as bad as what happened."

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: After setbacks from brain surgery, WCA basketball player is thriving