Over the summer, 16-year-old Noah Johnson was working at his brother’s fence-building company, trying to save money to buy a new truck. On June 18, he felt something bite him.
The rising high school junior from Slater, Iowa, mentioned it to his mom when he got home from work.
“He felt something crawl on him,” says Brandy Johnson, who works in transportation for the Ballard Community School District. “He said he just jumped.”
Noah had a bite on his lower left butt cheek. He went out with his friends that evening and spent the night at a friend’s house. When he came home the next morning, he told his mom, “That bite really hurts.” She told him to keep an eye on it and to let her know if it got any worse.
Brandy Johnson
Noah Johnson on July 4, 2024
Within a few days, the bite had tripled in size. Now it was about the size of a silver dollar, and had two black puncture marks. It looked like a pig’s snout.
“It was very very painful,” Brandy says. “He couldn’t even sit down on his bottom.”
On June 23, she took him to urgent care. Doctors suspected it was a spider bite that got infected. They didn’t know what kind but could see the “fang bites.” They assured his family that no spiders in the state of Iowa could kill someone, but that bites could become infected quickly.
After closer observation, they prescribed antibiotics, but they also tested him for MRSA, a type of staph bacteria that is often resistant to antibiotics.
Brandy Johnson
Noah Johnson shortly before he was bit by a spider
Unfortunately, the infection worsened, and soon he was oozing from not just the spider bite, but two other areas of his body.
Brandy knew he needed to go to the emergency room. They gave him more antibiotics and, even though he had a 103-degree fever, he was sent home. Brandy was told to wait at least 48 hours before bringing him back.
Three days later, his fever remained high, and he could no longer walk. They went to Mary Greeley Medical Center in Ames, Iowa, where he was rushed into emergency surgery to cut out the three infected areas.
The next morning, he went into kidney failure. He was immediately transferred to Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines, where he spent more than two weeks in the Pediatric ICU.
“Every day they thought he might get a little better, he went back downhill,” his aunt, Chastity Schonhorst, a finance coordinator for a non-profit, says. “It was heartbreaking.”
Brandy Johnson
Noah Johnson
The teen was placed on dialysis. Doctors biopsied his kidneys, and determined that he had a severe allergic reaction to the pain medication he was given at the first hospital. They hoped his kidneys would begin to recover on their own. A colonoscopy showed a small infection in his intestines. “He fought that for weeks,” his aunt says.
Noah is a strong teen who played baseball for years, according to his family.
“He’s a great kid,” his mother says. Before the spider bite, he was lifting weights for three hours a day, every day, Brandy says.
But in the hospital, he lost 35 lbs. and was bedridden. At certain points, he couldn’t even speak.
Brandy Johnson
Noah Johnson in the hospital
On July 16, he finally felt strong enough to talk to his mother.
“He thought he was dying. He said, ‘I’m very scared,’” she recalls. “I told him, ‘There’s nothing to be scared of. You’re going to be okay.’”
Brandy asked hospital staff to please only say positive things in front of her son.
“We needed to keep his mind positive to keep fighting,” adds Chastity.
One day, Brandy walked outside after spending days at her son’s bedside in his hospital room. The sunshine was uplifting, and she thought to herself, “I need to get him outside because it feels so good.”
She convinced the staff to wheel him out to sit in the sun. “He’s an outdoors person,” she says. The day after he went outside, his vital signs started to improve. He even told his cousin he would like to go fishing with her.
Brandy Johnson
Noah Johnson’s mom Brandy took him outside of the hospital to get fresh air and sunshine.
It was a sign of good things to come.
Noah was moved out of the ICU in mid-July after his kidneys started functioning and he was able to stop dialysis. “We needed some good news,” his aunt says.
His friends visited him in the hospital every other day. “They stood by him, and it changed him,” Schonhorst says. “We could see a difference in him just having his friends there.”
A group of Noah’s friends’ mothers started a GoFundMe to help the Johnsons and to get the community involved in praying for him and the family.
On July 21, Brandy and Chastity got the great news that Noah was able to go home. “He’s doing much better, but will need weeks of physical therapy, medications and many doctor’s visits,” his mom says.
And although it willl take time to regain his strength, Chastity says, “We are so grateful.” They hope he will be able to go back to school in the fall.
In the meantime, Brandy has been reflecting on the terrifying experience.
“We live in a world that never slows down,” she says. “When someone you love — especially your child — suddenly becomes gravely ill, everything changes in an instant. The world you knew just a moment ago disappears.”
She explains further: “The stress over bills, work, or what you were planning for dinner suddenly seems so small. You find yourself holding your breath, watching machines beep, praying for signs of strength in a little body that should never have to fight this kind of battle.”
Noah’s ordeal has given her a new perspective. “We spend so much of our lives believing we need more, but when you’re staring at the possibility of losing someone, you realize you already had everything that mattered.”
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