One minute Damian Hill was running the hills of Oak Grove Cemetery where his grandpa Rick Mattingly is the caretaker, four weeks later he is in Riley Children’s Hospital in the Intensive Care Unit with transverse myelitis.

On Oct. 7, he was admitted to the Indianapolis hospital with pneumonia and dismissed two days later. Still running a 102 degree temperature and listless, his grandfather tried to perk him by taking him for a ride on Friday morning. By the time they returned home from Princeton, Damian was listless and had lost feeling in his right arm and his head was laying to the right. He was taken immediately to the emergency room where a doctor did CAT scans of his head and chest. The tests showed an abnormality. The ER doctor ordered an ambulance to take Damian and his mother, Amy Sheid, to Riley immediately. By Sunday he had been diagnosed with transverse myelitis. Fortunately, it had not yet attacked his brain.

Myelitis is a neurological disorder characterized by inflammation of the brain and spinal cord caused by damage to the myelin sheath. The myelin sheath is the fatty covering, which acts as an insulator on nerve fibers in the brain. The disorder occurs in children more often than adults and is characterized by symptoms of headache, delirium, fever, lethargy, vomiting and weight loss.

Damian, a 7-year-old first grader at Griffith, weighed 50 pounds when he was admitted in October. He now weighs 38. His right arm is paralyzed, his left arm is paralyzed from the elbow up and his throat has collapsed. He has a trach in his throat and a feeding tube. He can’t speak because he has the trach and a ventilator. He has crashed twice because his lungs filled up with fluid when he was off the ventilator.

But he’s still a little boy. He still has a smile on his face and wants to play. His grandpa says it’s hard to walk into his room and see him smiling when he is fighting for his life. Both grandparents struggle to talk about him and his condition without crying. One of Damian’s nurses brought in a PlayStation 2 for him to play with. With minimum use of his arms, he does his best to play it.

Damian’s mother and grandmother, Vivian Mattingly, both work at Washington Nursing Center. Amy has had to be off work the last month to stay by Damian’s side until he is well enough to come home from the hospital, which might be six to 12 months from now. The nursing center has been helping the family with various needs as they happen. YoYo’s Daycare, where Damian and his little brother, Matthew, who is 6, both go, has been setting out collection cans around town for donations to help the family with expenses. Damian’s father, John Hill Jr., is currently laid off, so is spending as much time as he can at Riley with Damian.

A fund has been set up at Peoples Bank titled the Damian Hill Benefit Fund. Donations from that will help the family with expenses. Damian is expected to be transferred to Methodist Hospital where he will start receiving physical therapy on his throat to learn to swallow again. Without the ventilator he would be able to communicate with his family, doctors and nurses. The doctors feel his brain has not been affected by the disease, just his body from his chest up. Both Amy and Vivian will have to take classes to learn how to take care of him as he will require care the rest of his life.

Beth Jones, a friend and former co-worker of Vivian’s, and Dustin Williams have organized a fund raiser for Damian. It is a hog roast from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at the Angle Inn. A plate dinner, with a variety of food choices, will be available for a donation. Carry-outs will also be offered and there will be a 50-50 drawing.

“The family appreciates the help the community has shown this week and asks for continued prayers for Damian,” Rick Mattingly said.