Zach Horton- From darkness comes light

In March of 2013, recent college graduate Zach Horton, 23, began experiencing vision issues, blackness at a bad time … while driving.

“We went to see an ophthalmologist,” said Horton. “He took one look in the back of my eye with his scope and saw what he called papilledema of the optic nerve. He said, ‘I can’t tell you anything until you see a neurologist.’”

So Horton with his family went to Macon’s Navicent Health and was told he needed a CT scan and MRI. He thought the next procedure after these was a lumbar puncture, but instead he heard horrific news.

“You have a brain tumor. It’s inoperable,” Horton recalled hearing.

“It kind of came out of left field. Blew us both away. Me and my mom were sitting in the hospital room … We started praying. We were playing Christian music in our room. The nurse from my neurosurgeon walked in, and the first thing she said was, ‘Could I pray with you?’”

Horton’s first surgery took place and was going well until he started having a massive seizure. That came under control. His surgeon is Dr. Joe Sam Robinson, and Horton praised him and his team.

Eight days later, Horton said he had a shunt failure (partial or complete blockage of the shunt, which allowed fluid to move in the body), the first of numerous, and there was no explanation for them. He said that’s what caused him to lose sight.

“That’s when I went blind. The pressure in my head built up so much that according to a neuro ophthalmologist up at Emroy, it did irreparable damage to my optic nerve.

“Then, about a month later, is when my memory quit.”

For 18 months, Horton’s memory shuts down. His mother Renee Horton said, beginning in May 2013, Zach stopped talking altogether and eating, plus he was unable to move. But she said he was cognitive.

“I was trapped inside my body,” said Zach. “I was there, but I have no recollection of what happened. They never used the word coma. I was a total invalid.”

The plan was to transfer Zach to Emory for radiation treatment on the small tumor located on his brain stem to keep the tumor from growing.

“He was having spasms,” Renee said. “His body’s sweating profusely because everything’s out of whack in the brain.”

“That’s why my feet are messed up,” said Zach. “My feet spent so much time down and contracted. I have foot drops, and my foot is turned because the tendon shrank.”

Zach was able to return home from Emory on Aug. 1 with a hospital bed set up for him. For the next 20 months, Zach continued to go to Macon for treatment. While Zach continued talking about how well the nurses looked after him and the needs of even his family, there was a major need for him to be seen by a local doctor in Warner Robins. It was his grandfather whom they went to looking for somebody who could follow this case closely.

“He either called Sonny Watson or was in Sonny Watson’s office,” said Zach. “Sonny calls him back and said, ‘I’ve got a doctor right here who would love to do it.’”

That is Dr. Al-Sharif.

“He has been outstanding,” said Zach. “Before and since I woke up, she doesn’t even have to call him. Send him a text. He’s been right there the whole time. He invited me, my parents and my grandparents, we all went over to his house to eat with his family. He’s been invested in my overall healthcare.”

“We saw some of the best of the best doctors,” Renee said. “It’s hard to describe it if you didn’t see it. They tried all different kind of medications.”

The neurologist they were able to see in Warner Robins, thanks to Dr. Al-Sharif, said he recommended Valium. He started at a low dose, increased it, and the spasms stopped.

‘The bigwigs in Atlanta couldn’t do it,” said Zach.

His mother said it was mind-blowing to see the spasms cease. His condition lasted until December 2014.

“Everybody had a present except for me,” was his first thought being in a circle of people opening gifts on Christmas. “I got so upset.

“I woke up about two weeks before my younger brother got married. That’s the shock of a lifetime. They thought I was having another shunt failure. Sometimes during the shunt failure I would come out of the sleep and start talking … very slurred, very subdued, didn’t make much sense.

“They took me to the hospital. The first memory I have after May of 2013 is Christmas (2014). That’s when I remember them telling me my brother Josh was getting married.”

Zach, down to 175 pounds, was the best man. He said it took four guys to pick him up for his wheelchair, but he held the ring at the ceremony at home. And it would have “killed him” to miss it.

“The people from Houston County stuck by me,” said Zach, stating he still hears from the doctors locally asking if he needs anything.

“I remembered everybody. My body was still contracted. This has been a work in progress for a year. Everything happened boom, boom, boom. A lot hasn’t made sense even to the doctors. It seems slow … but then this time last year I could get into a car but had to hold on to my dad’s shoulders (he couldn’t use his legs). He would pivot me in the car. I can get in any vehicle I want now.”

His outpatient physical therapy was at the pavilion at old Houston Mall. Being blind adds a twist, so he’s learned muscle memory and can go from one room to another on his own. Zach also used the pool at the Cantrell Center, where he built leg strength with kicks. He was placed in the pool through a lift. Eventually, he was at a point he could ride a bike at the Cantrell Center gym.

“We got hooked up with Mike Cantrell,” said Zach. “He had that little device he made for feet like mine. Out of the goodness of his heart, he started doing this. He got us in touch with Paul Boland with Boland Prosthetics. He’s the reason I’m able to walk with the walker.”

Zach has a custom-made brace from Boland that holds his foot in a neutral position so his body weight will stretch the tendons out and prevent another surgery. He said Boland himself has visited the Horton home to fit other braces for Zach and demonstrate how to use them.

The Hortons were a part of the Cantrell Center 5K pushing Zach in his wheelchair. But he walked the last 300 feet.

“They took an interest in me getting better,” said Zach.

Zach can also walk up the steps in their home one by one.

Zach’s positive outlook has continued despite some setbacks. “I had an infection in my cerebral fluid,” said Zach. “They had me hooked to an external tube … running out of my head into a bag. I produced an extreme amount of cerebral fluid. More than average.

“The biggest reason I don’t have depression is because of my faith,” said Zach, answering another puzzling question from his doctors. “I know if it weren’t for it and the promises God gave me … I don’t know how I would have made it through. I had the support of family and doctors and high school friends in Perry.”

He is a 2008 graduate of Westfield. Renee added how his classmates and his teachers would stop by to see him during the sleep period. Zach will give his testimony at a Westfield assembly for both middle school and high school.

“He has a clarity he did not have before,” she said.

“I have gained more personally from being blind,” he said. “The biggest part of the story is the spiritual journey for me. Since I woke up, He’s continued to give me opportunities to tell my story. If I lived through it so somebody else doesn’t have to, how can I be depressed?”

“We’ve had some bad days,” Renee said. “Probably the worst times were in the waiting room during surgeries. He’s had almost 19.”

That first operation, when Zach’s seizures got so bad, he said the surgeon himself had to leave the room. His mother said that surgeon told them he didn’t know the outcome.

Renee said even the hospital custodian was a “sunshine” every time she cleaned the room. This lady said God could do much more than a doctor, as good as they are.

“I got a complete new view of all the different people who go into the care of the whole person,” Renee said. “They care with the family. We’re more sensitive about all people now.”

“It’s been a journey,” said Zach. “I never would have told you this is where I’d be at 26. I had graduated from Auburn. Moved to Atlanta. Had a job. Had big plans. Got involved in a church in Atlanta after four years of thinking I knew better than my parents doing what I thought the college experience was. I did my share of partying. I regret it. I’ve seen just how much Jesus loves me and where His provisions lie.”

“Nothing has gone like they thought it would go,” Renee said, stating that they don’t even know the current condition of the tumor. “He has a working shunt that keeps the pressure where it needs to be. As long as he has a working shunt, we don’t need to see the tumor. He’s had the maximum (radiation) he can have. For all we know, it could be gone.”

Long-term goals for Zach include starting his own family. He studied international business with a focus on marking and Spanish in college, and he wanted to open a business back home with his father. But he doesn’t know now if that’s what he’s supposed to do.

“I really think I’ll be doing something ministry related, said Zach. “I know I want to serve the Lord in any capacity He wants. However that looks to anybody else, I don’t care.

“I fully believe I am going to see again one day. Medically speaking, I was supposed to be dead. I will start learning Braille. That will open a lot of doors. I’m kind of through making plans. I would have never planned for this.”

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