MONROE -- Under a canopy of blue sky and marshmallow-like clouds Saturday, Dustin Carter took center stage and wowed his audience.
His stage, the diving board of a municipal swimming pool, overlooked still, blue water waiting for the first ripple of the day. Grinning, the 9-year-old yelled: "Watch this! I do a great side flip."
He plunged into 12-foot-deep water, and for the first time in four years, he did not pay a high price for simply swimming.
The blond-haired, brown-eyed youngster lost parts of both arms and legs through complications of meningitis in July 1994. When Dustin refused to surrender his favorite summer pastime, his family dressed him in sweat pants and a T-shirt to protect his fragile, grafted skin from the sun. But scooting across pool concrete still ripped the tender tissue.
No more.
Middletown firefighters gave Dustin two wet suits Saturday that they bought and customized.
"It's unreal what that child has been through and survived," said Capt. Don Hardin, president of Middletown Firefighters Local 336 of the International Association of Firefighters.
The union came to Dustin's the rescue when his baby sitter, Jacki Cornett of Middletown, launched a fund drive to buy the wet suits. "When I heard about his need, it really touched my heart," Capt. Hardin said. "I called my executive board and said, "We have to do something for this child.' "
The union bought the suits and firefighter - paramedic Perry Wallace altered them to fit and added pieces of leather to reinforce areas most likely to come in contact with the rough pool concrete, said Capt. Hardin.
When firefighters presented the suits to Dustin Saturday at Middletown's Sunset Pool, they also declared him an honorary firefighter.
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HOW TO HELP
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Donations to the fund to help with future medical bills and prostheses (artificial limbs) or the portion not covered by insurance can be brought to any branch of the First National Bank of Southwestern Ohio, including Middletown, Hamilton, Fairfield, Lebanon, Mason, Oxford and Cincinnati. If the branch does not have the account number it may contact Middletown's Breiel office at 425-7620.
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Dustin nearly died from the disease, but his parents said the stubborn determination that had often vexed them seemed to help him win the battle for life.
But a complication called purpura fulminans cost him parts of his limbs, said Dr. Richard Kagan, a Cincinnati surgeon.
The condition destroyed enough soft tissue, skin and fat to require amputation of his left leg below the knee, right leg above the knee, left arm below the elbow and the right hand and wrist. Skin from his back was grafted onto his limbs.
"We usually treat two or three patients with this purpura fulminans a year," Dr. Kagan said. "I doubt if he would have lost his limbs if he hadn't gotten the purpura.
When Dustin first came home from the hospital, he needed help to do almost everything -- even sit up.
Now Lori Carter says she can hardly keep him still. He scorns suggestions he has limitations. With or without four artificial limbs, Dustin romps, scoots and flips. He plays football, baseball and soccer. He does headstands, and shows amazing dexterity with his stumps -- grasping a snack or water bottle, turning pages of a book and drawing.
Dustin said he would like to become an artist.
"He's made up his mind he can do what everyone else does," Ms. Carter said. "He acts like this was the way it's always been, it's the way it's always going to be, and this is fine. There's nothing he won't try. There's not much of anything he can't do. He's a very special boy.
Seeing a miracle
Dustin has developed a special rapport with his baby sitter.
Mrs. Cornett said she had trouble sleeping one night after seeing Dustin's swimming wounds.
"I sat up until about 2 a.m. thinking about things we could do," she said. "I finally thought of the wet suits. I had to help him." She got more than just the wet suits before the campaign was over. Bill Kirkpatrick, owner of Police Cruisers Ltd., Middletown, gave Dustin and his baby sitter a membership to the YMCA in Middletown so he can swim year-round.
Ms. Cornett joined Ms. Carter and Dustin's father, stepmother, brother, sisters, friends, firefighters and the rest of the crowd that assembled to cheer the 9-year-old.
Watching his swimm, Dustin's mother said she doesn't see his disabilities anymore.
"When I look at him now I don't see a child who has lost his arms and legs," Ms. Carter said. "I see a miracle."
