Constable: Bears make teen's wish come true
You might not be excited by today's NFL clash between a 2-8 team coached by the last guy fired by the Bears and a 4-6 Bears team coached by the next guy likely to be fired by the Bears. But 14-year-old Daniel Isufi of Arlington Heights turned down a free trip to a tropical paradise to be at this game.
“I'm a Bears fan,” explains Daniel. His dog's name is Payton, in honor of Bears' great Walter Payton. His bedroom is packed with posters, pictures and an autographed football from his favorite NFL team, as well as souvenirs from his beloved White Sox, the Blackhawks and Bulls.
“I like all the Chicago teams,” Daniel says, “except the Cubs.”
When Make-A-Wish informed Daniel that the lupus diagnosis he received this year made him eligible for a free trip to a destination of his choice, he heard subtle hints from his mom, Pam, and twin sister, Olivia, that Hawaii might be a nice alternative to a November day at Chicago's Soldier Field.
“No, my life is dedicated to sports, so I'm doing a sports one,” Daniel told them.
And the Bears intend to make it special.
“We feel privileged that with all the things Daniel could have picked for his wish, he chose to spend Friday with us at Halas Hall and Sunday at Soldier Field,” says Caroline Schrenker, director of community relations for the Bears. “We want to make it a memorable and special weekend for Daniel and his family, and our hope is we are all celebrating a victory together on Sunday.”
On Friday, a limousine picked up the teenager at St. Viator High School in Arlington Heights, where he is a freshman, and took him to Lake Forest to watch the Bears practice.
“After practice, all the players ran toward me and grabbed my football and started signing it,” Daniel says. “It was an awesome sight.”
Daniel brought along his mom, his buddy Tim Allaire, and Tim's dad. The senior Tim Allaire coached girls softball in 2009 with Daniel's father, Tim Isufi.
Daniel's father, who had been dealing with lupus since his own diagnosis at age 14, collapsed and died in front of his wife and two kids that August during a family outing in Wisconsin.
Only 43, Tim Isufi, who had been a chef at one of Mike Ditka's restaurants before moving into food service management, apparently suffered an aneurysm. His widow says the family doesn't know whether his lupus and the stress of two kidney transplants were factors in his shocking death. But they do know that Daniel, a student-body president who clearly has his dad's ability to make friends, won't have to follow the path his father traveled.
“They (doctors) did tell me the night he was diagnosed, ‘This is not your husband's lupus,'” says Pam Isufi. Better understanding and new therapeutic treatments have lowered the risk of health issues associated with the autoimmune disease that can damage joints, skin and organs.
A baseball player and member of the basketball team at St. Peter Lutheran School in Arlington Heights last season, Daniel got sick shortly before Christmas.
“I was very tired,” he recalls. He would lie on the couch, which isn't all that unusual for teenage boys. But he also stayed home some days with a fever and vomiting. He played basketball the night before he went to the emergency room.
“He was struggling to go up and down the court,” his mom remembers. “And his socks didn't fit, I just thought he was growing.”
His body was retaining fluids. The next day, Jan. 17, Daniel felt so lousy that he stayed home from school, missing the eighth-grade class ski trip to Wisconsin with Olivia and his classmates. He had gone to the doctor a few days earlier, and his blood work was finished.
“His pediatrician called me at work,” remembers his mom, a dietitian, who was told a room would be waiting for Daniel at Chicago's Lurie Children's Hospital. “I knew he would not be coming home (that day). I didn't know he'd be there for a month.”
“Thirty-one days,” Daniel says. “It was very boring, that's for sure. All I could do is lie in bed and watch sports.”
Those first days were far from boring.
“I was scared at first. I actually thought that I was going to die. Things in the hospital just kept getting worse and worse,” says Daniel. His blood pressure spiked, and his kidneys were failing.
Using family and her “St. Peter family” to help her handle things at home and Olivia's busy schedule, Pam Isufi would rush from the hospital to see Olivia after school and drive back to sleep at the hospital every night. She was awakened early one morning by the sound of Daniel's blood pressure cuff hitting his bed rails. He was having a seizure.
“I've been through a lot of stuff, but that was the worst day of my life,” Pam Isufi says.
A dialysis machine took over the functions of Daniel's failing kidneys. As his kidneys improved, his dialysis treatments went from daily to three times a week to none as they were no longer needed.
Classmates visited him. His team wore purple socks as part of the Lupus Foundation of America's “Put on Purple” awareness effort.
On Feb. 16, while Daniel was in the intensive care unit, his St. Peter boys basketball team and Olivia's girls team played in a basketball tournament in Menomonee, Wisconsin.
“Probably not the wisest decision, I took him out of ICU and drove to Menomonee,” Pam Isufi remembers. Nobody knew Daniel was coming, not even Olivia.
“She needed to see her brother out of the hospital,” Pam Isufi says.
“They were just announcing the lineups and said, ‘No. 23, Olivia,' when Daniel walked through the door,” his sister remembers. “I ran to him and gave him a hug, and then they starting chanting, ‘Daniel Strong.'”
Having gone from 140 pounds to 110 pounds in the hospital, a weakened Daniel needed help from his friends to climb the bleachers.
“When I was walking to the bleachers, everyone was chanting, ‘Daniel Strong.' And they made me an honorary starter. It was something I'll never forget,” Daniel says.
His mom says “it was a little overwhelming.
“We didn't expect that, but it was good medicine for a lot of people,” she says.
St. Peter Principal Bruce Rudi notes the strength shown by the twins, and the support that they garner from the St. Peter community.
“It's a tribute to their mom, Tim, and the foundation that she and Tim set for them,” Rudi says.
People often mistakenly think that Make-A-Wish dreams are granted only to children who are dying from terminal illnesses. Any child with a life-threatening condition is eligible, and many recipients do grow into healthy adults. The overwhelming majority of people with lupus who are diagnosed during childhood and receive treatment live otherwise healthy lives and enjoy normal life expectancies.
Daniel says he can't begin to thank his friends, Make-A-Wish and the Bears for all they have done for him. But as he attends today's game with his mom and friends Steve Ringstrand and Michael Thomas, Daniel does have one more request from the Bears' coach, quarterback and players.
“The offensive line needs to protect Jay Cutler. Jay Cutler needs to get his head in the game,” Daniel says. “And Marc Trestman needs to play smart, and call good plays at the right time.”
After all, if the Bears don't win, Daniel might as well have gone to Hawaii.