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Amputee finds ‘a lot of blessings’

Darrell Dishon talks Monday, Oct. 19, in his Lebanon home about adjusting to life in a wheelchair. Dishon lost his legs to flesh eating bacteria after eating contaminated oysters days before his Florida wedding in July 2009.

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By Justin McClelland, Staff Writer Updated 7:59 PM Sunday, November 1, 2009

LEBANON — When Darrell Dishon returned to the Silver Grove Baptist Church in Lebanon for the first time in months, the line of parishioners to shake his hand was as long as the one to shake the pastor’s.

“I was blown away by it,” said Dishon, who lost both legs over the summer to a flesh-eating bacteria during a trip to get married. “The support I’ve received from so many people in the past couple of months — I would never say what happened to me was a blessing, but I’ve found a lot of blessings in my life because of it.”

Doctors in Panama City, Fla. were forced to amputate Dishon’s legs in July, after he contracted the bacteria, he believes, from eating raw oysters. Dishon had traveled to Panama City to marry Nicole Copas on a destination wedding.

Nicole was forced to make the agonizing decision to have Dishon’s legs amputated because he had been placed by doctors into a drug-induced coma. Dishon did not know his legs had been amputated until weeks later.

The bacteria is known as Vibrio vulnificus, common in raw oysters. Because Dishon was a diabetic, his immune system was more vulnerable to the bacteria that nearly killed him.

Earlier this week, federal officials announced plan to ban sales of raw oysters harvested from the Gulf of Mexico — like the ones Dishon said he ate —unless the shellfish are treated to destroy potentially deadly bacteria.

Dishon said the only thing he remembers from the coma is hearing Nicole’s voice. The couple eventually married shortly before Dishon left the Panama City hospital for a recovery center at the University of Alabama in Birmingham.

When Dishon was ready to come back to Ohio, he said his father-in-law and two friends — Freddy Payne and Beep McCarty — made a spontaneous overnight trip to Alabama to pick him up.

“My dad said I needed a ride home and Freddy and Beep said ‘Let’s go,’ ” Dishon said. “Friends like that... I don’t know what I’d do without him.”

Dishon said he’s been “blown away” from the community support, including a fundraiser held at King’s Bar and Grill. Furthermore, he’s received letters from around the world from people offering support or who were inspired by his tale.

Dishon said he’s pushing himself to beat doctors’ estimates in his recovery. Now, even the smallest moments, like the ability to move himself from a wheelchair onto the toilet, are moments of great pride. “It’s incredible,” said Nicole. “He won’t let anybody tell him he can’t do something.”

The Dishons have moved into a single-story condo in Lebanon because their former home had two stories and too many steps. They live with Nicole’s son Nick and dog Max.

Dishon said his stepson, who is 12 and attends Lebanon Junior High, has amazed him with his maturity during the situation.

“If he hears me cough too loud, he’ll run to check on me,” Dishon said,

The person Dishon said he leans on most, though, is his wife, Nicole. He said while in recovery he would grow anxious if she wasn’t near him and developed a sort of separation anxiety. Now she is able to return to work as a nurse, but Dishon said he will never take her presence for granted.

“After all this, I still don’t drive her insane,” Dishon said.

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