Major Back Surgery Doesn’T Stop This Senior Despite Missing A Month Of School, Lakeland’S Logan Wilson Will Graduate With His Class

From the nape of his neck to just above his waistline, the thin scar stretches down his spine like a snake.

Today, the scar is smaller than it used to be. It’s even beginning to disappear a bit. But behind the mark is a story of endurance.

In September 1999, Logan Wilson had just started his senior year at Lakeland High School when he underwent major surgery to correct a case of scoliosis, a curvature of the spine. He missed one month of his senior year.

“It’s just another thing you go through,” the 17-year-old said. “It’s just surgery. It’s something you have to deal with.”

Wilson’s back surgery was anything but simple. The procedure is equivalent to open-heart surgery, where four out of 1,000 patients never walk again.

“It was hard to see him lie there knowing he hurt so bad,” said Wilson’s dad, Tom.

Five weeks, two steel rods and more than 300 internal stitches later, Wilson had a straighter back. Doctors had opened up Wilson’s entire spine and pulled back all of the muscles, tendons and ligaments off of his vertebrae.

Parts of his lower ribs were removed, ground up and inserted into the cavities that caused his back to curve in three places. Much like braces on teeth, the steel rods served as a guide while his back healed.

“When I went back to school - that was the coolest thing,” Wilson said.

Wilson’s parents, Tom and Eileen, approached Frank Vieira, a counselor at the school, last spring to tell him about the surgery. It was the first time the high school counselor, or anyone at school knew Wilson had a problem with his back.

“He never mentioned the fact that -`I’m in pain all the time,”’ Vieira said.

Wilson even seemed to walk more straight than most students, Vieira said. He never thought Wilson’s pronounced walk was a way to hide a curved spine. He thought it was the teenager’s way of practicing his military posture.

Two months ago, that was Wilson’s dream.

He was planning to join the Navy and work in its nuclear power program. He scored so high on the tests that Wilson, who also is an Eagle Scout, was told he could be a commander soon, he said.

But Navy officials told Wilson that because of his surgery he couldn’t join the Navy. It’s not a topic Wilson talks about much, because there’s a feeling of disappointment that arises when it’s mentioned.

This summer, Wilson will work at Silverwood Theme Park for his second summer in a row. This fall, he plans to attend North Idaho College and then pursue a career in physical therapy or environmental engineering.

The doctor’s prescription to walk actually eased the pain in Wilson’s back. His nerves have finally healed and by September, Wilson will be able to lift weights again. He’s looking forward to that, he said.

Wilson maintained a 3.0 grade-point average despite missing a month of school last fall. He kept up in his trigonometry and physics classes. Vieira said he was impressed by Wilson because he never used excuses to get out of schoolwork.

“I can’t stand people who are always whining and complaining,” Wilson said. “So I didn’t.”

And Wilson healed quickly, too. When doctors told him to walk five minutes, Wilson walked for 20 minutes.

“He had the determination and will to heal quickly,” Vieira said. “In a way, it’s worked for him.”

His healing rate has been classified as “a textbook model” in rapid healing, Tom Wilson said, thanks to his superb physical health.

At his six-month X-ray this spring, doctors said Wilson looked like he was at a 10-month healing mark.

As Wilson enters a new phase in life and says goodbye to another, he said one he’s most proud of one thing: “not messing up,” he said. “I’m proud I’m graduating.”

And Wilson will graduate Thursday with the rest of his class at Lakeland High School. Most of all, Vieira said when he remembers Wilson in the future, he will remember one phrase: “the will to heal.”