High School Shows Support For Student Battling Severe Flu Complications
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (CBS4)- A high school in Colorado Springs is rallying around a basketball player with a severe case of flu. Schafer Reichart is at Children's Hospital Colorado in Aurora.
Reichart came down with the flu last week. It turned into a serious strep infection that has him fighting for his life. He was airlifted to Children's Hospital Colorado when the flu spread through his body.
"Heart failure, lung failure, kidney failure and he truly was on the brink of death," said Schafer's mom.
On social media, the teen's family posted a video updating his prognosis and things are looking more positive.
"He truly was on the brink of death. We have a different prognosis a week later," his mother said on the video.
"Rather than him fighting for his life, now he's on the road to recovery. The next step for Schafer is to get off this ventilator. So we're pretty excited about that," said his father.
On Tuesday night, the Doherty High School basketball team wore jerseys with "Reichart" on the front, red shoes and armbands for Schafer, or "Schafe" as he's known to his classmates. The color red is meant to represent the color of Ohio State University, his favorite college team.
"There were quite a few days where we didn't know if we would have Schafe forever," said his basketball coach, Eric Stener.
"We just kind of came together and were like, 'We got to finish strong for Schafe because that's what he would want,'" said teammate Brody Gish.
So far, nearly $30,000 has been raised for the teen's family through a GoFundMe Campaign.