Dave Hutchison has spent the last 24 years overseeing the Irene-Wakonda school district near Yankton, South Dakota. He spent time as a football coach, cheering on and motivating his students. Now, as superintendent, he says his job is to ensure their safety and that they get a good education. It’s been difficult for him to accept that students are rallying to support him.
“On August 8, I became sick and my wife made me get a doctor’s appointment in Sioux Falls with our normal doctor,” Dave said. “I passed out in the exam room. They rushed me to the Sanford Medical Center and from there, they took a bone marrow biopsy and determined that I had leukemia.”
While adjusting to the news that he had cancer, Dave also fought two different battles with sepsis. He was in the ICU for 10 days and nearly lost his life. He transferred to Nebraska Medicine to start his treatments. The combination of chemotherapy and a long hospital stay left Dave deconditioned and weak.
“They called all my family in and all my organs shut down and I was supposed to die,” Dave said. “Somehow, miraculously, the man upstairs was looking out for me and somehow I survived.”
Dave said because of blood pressure medication he had to take, his feet swelled, “to the size of footballs.” He didn’t know if he would have to have them amputated. Coming to Madonna Rehabilitation Hospitals’ specialized cancer rehabilitation program, Dave worked with Bobbi Jo Doyle, RN, Madonna’s wound care nurse, who helped him save his feet. But he had lost nearly 50 pounds and a lot of muscle mass.
“I lost the use of my legs and could barely lift my arms,” Dave said. “Everybody had to do everything for me. I had a feeding tube in and it was tough, but I had to stay strong and believe.”
His physician-led care team put together a therapy plan to help Dave regain his strength and his confidence. Ruthri Goodwin, MD, medical director for Madonna’s cancer rehabilitation program, spent time with him daily to oversee his care. Physical therapist Alex Eilers, PT, DPT, and occupational therapist Tyler Pribnow, OTD, OTR/L, CBIS, came up with creative ways to challenge Dave in therapy.
“My goal is always to meet a patient where they are and try to build off and improve that moving forward,” Eilers said. “For him, it was a lot of lower extremity strengthening and return to daily functions. The goal was to be independent.”
Always looking to challenge himself, Dave set a goal to complete his therapy and be independent in two weeks, roughly half the time his care team set for him. He promised himself he would walk out of Madonna on his own. He progressed from needing a walker to a single-point cane.
“He walked about 75 feet the first time we did a six-minute walk test and he quadrupled that by the time he left,” Eilers said.
Pribnow and Dave bonded over their love of sports and competitive natures. During sessions, they often played Wii Sports, adding fun to the hard work.
“I really wanted to challenge his balance without him using his walker, and a good way is to do things like bowling,” Pribnow said. “One of the things he liked to do also was golfing. We incorporated the Wii so he could do both. Hardly anyone ever beats me at video games, but he beat me by three strokes. It motivated him, knowing he could maybe get back to some of those activities.”
Pribnow also took Dave on a community outing to Nebraska Furniture Mart to pick out a new recliner, and Madonna’s rec therapy took him to Scheels to look at hunting equipment. His endurance began to increase, as did his drive.
“You could see how much light was in him when he left, knowing he could be independent and just had to keep working at it,” Pribnow said.
While navigating a difficult road like cancer, Dave says it’s important to be mentally tough and have a good support system. His wife and daughters, Taylor and Gabrielle, were with him every single day he was in the hospital.
“He had a very involved, active, helpful family who were able to be trained and start helping him in the room while they were here,” Eilers said. “That just sling-shot his progress forward because he was practicing those techniques more than just in therapy, more than just with the nursing staff, but in his spare time.”
Dave says he’s even been feeling love and support from across the Midwest. People have created #FightLikeHutch shirts, and even rival schools have found ways to honor him through signs, fundraising and wearing orange, the color of leukemia awareness. He knows his journey is far from over. He is in the middle of his third round of chemotherapy and says he still needs a bone marrow transplant.
“I saw my oncologist yesterday and said it’s a miracle, I’m going to walk out of here after thirteen days of therapy,” he said. “I get to go home to those kids. I just want to thank everybody who has been involved in the process.”
Dave earned a Madonna Spirit Award from his care team for his hard work and resiliency during his rehabilitation.
As he awaits his transplant, Dave says he plans to find a safe way to return to work and greet students again. He hopes to inspire them and show them that with a positive attitude, they can face any obstacle in life.
“You have to make the best of it,” Dave said. “Life’s too short to just not.”