Wednesday, March 01, 2000
Deer Park wrestler lives to fight again
Sayer beat severe illness
BY MARK SCHMETZER
Enquirer contributor
Of the 672 wrestlers who qualified for this weekend's state wrestling tournament in Columbus, few are likely to be as thankful as Adam Sayer.
That's because the Deer Park senior heavyweight considers himself lucky to be alive.
Sayer, 18, who also was a two-way lineman for the football team, missed most of football season and most of the wrestling season after a staph infection threatened his life.
“It kept getting worse,” Sayer said. “Everything they were giving me didn't seem to be helping. Finally, they decided that they were going to try an operation.”
Surgery was scheduled for Sept.27. But that day, the infection started receding. The surgery was canceled.
“I was still messed up and weak,” Sayer said, “but my vital signs were good.”
Sayer went home Oct.5. Football was out, but he was cleared to return to wrestling in January, and he won championships at the Finneytown and Reading invitationals. He also won the Cincinnati Hills League and Division III sectional titles and qualified for the state tournament with a third-place finish at last Saturday's district tournament.
“Here's a kid who overcame the odds to have a super senior season,” said Mike Morgan, Deer Park's athletic director and football coach. “It could've been fatal. I think the drugs took effect, but I also think a higher power had something to do with this.”
“I've never seen anybody come back from something like that to that degree,” Deer Park wrestling coach Pete Engel said. “To come back the way he has from something that was life-threatening. ... He's really lost nothing.”
Sayer started feeling pain in his groin the day after the third game of football season.
“I thought I'd pulled a muscle, but as the day and night progressed, it got worse and worse and worse,” Sayer said. “The next day, I couldn't go to work.”
Sayer's dad, Mark, took him to Jewish Hospital.
Sayer was transfered to Children's Hospital, where he was admitted to the intensive care unit, and intravenous lines were inserted into his chest. He was unconscious for a week.
“I woke up and told my mom that we had to play Finneytown,” Adam recalled. “She said, "No, they already played them. You've been sleeping for a week.'”
His condition worsened as he started to develop pneumonia, which forced doctors to place him on a ventilator.
Sayer's classmates started a show of support symbolized by 6-inch red ribbons, reflecting one of the school colors and his football uniform number — 60. The program expanded through the school community and then to opposing teams.
“When I was real bad, there were so many people coming to see me that they had to give me my own sign-in sheets, and people had to use the backs,” Sayer said. “The guys from the Reading and Finneytown teams sent cards.”
Though Sayer was released in October, he had to continue taking medication. He was allowed to start conditioning for wrestling in December and was cleared to start competition Jan.7. That day, he finished third in the Madeira tournament.
“At the time, I thought that was pretty good,” he said.
Sayer, who won the sectional title at 215 last season, will take a 22-3 record into his first-round heavyweight match Thursday against Elyria Catholic senior Kurt Wilhelm.
“That's a tough first-round match,” Sayer said. “He's 22-2, but then again, I'm 22-3.”
He's already overcome tougher odds than that.
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