advertisement

A happy ending and a message from Dundee-Crown's Kieltyka

Dundee-Crown offensive tackle Jake Kieltyka could hear his quarterback calling a play in the huddle, but there was a problem.

"I could hear that there were words being said, but I couldn't understand the play that was being called, what my responsibility was in it," the West Dundee resident said this week.

An honor roll student who had not suffered a concussion this season, Jake had been quietly dealing with such episodes since he was a child. To him, they were normal. So, he did what he always did in such situations: he went about his business until the episode passed.

In football terms that meant he occasionally came to the line of scrimmage not knowing what his responsibility was on a given play. He would make an educated guess based on the formation as to what play had been called, and sometimes he was right.

But sometimes he was wrong. The missed assignments added up. Like most players who screw up a play they've previously executed correctly 200 times, Jake would be told to run laps in practice by his coaches, who were at a loss to explain the mental lapses by a kid carrying almost straight As.

Still, Jake stayed mum. He didn't want anyone to know. He wanted to play football.

Of course, no one could have known Jake was having simple partial seizures, a symptom brought on by a slow-growing brain tumor called ganglioglioma.

The problem wasn't discovered until the unpredictable seizures - which could occur once a day, every other day or months apart - became more acute. Beginning in September, the previously imperceptible seizures were frequently accompanied by vomiting.

At that point Jake told his parents, Mike and Jackie Kieltyka, what had been happening. Concerned, they asked Jake, the oldest of their three children, to track how often he was experiencing such episodes. When they realized he was having one every day or every other day, they did a Google search of his symptoms. The search results, Jackie said, pointed to a brain tumor. It was time to see a doctor.

First, they visited Jake's pediatrician. He recommended the Kieltykas see a neurologist within the week. An MRI was done on Wednesday, Oct. 15. Jackie describes what happened next as "a whirlwind."

Dr. Abdul Mazin, a pediatric neurosurgeon with Alexian Brothers Health System, called the next day and told Mike and Jackie their son had a brain tumor and it had to come out right away.

Mazin originally wanted to schedule surgery three days later on Oct. 19, Jackie said, but that was Jake's 17th birthday. The procedure was instead scheduled for Monday, Oct. 20.

"It knocks you off your feet. It was devastating," Jackie said of the news. "The fear ... you just don't know what to do. Especially with the speed with which they wanted to do surgery. They said that it needs to be done and you don't really have another choice, we need to move forward, that kind of thing. You just start moving forward."

Jake was with the rest of the Dundee-Crown football players that night enjoying the weekly team dinner in the school's cafeteria. When he got home Mike and Jackie sat him down and explained what the doctor had told them.

"I didn't really want to believe it," Jake said.

On Friday, Oct. 17, the Kieltykas met with Dr. Mazin and Dr. Bryan Bertoglio, the neurosurgeon Mazin would assist during the surgery at Alexian Brothers.

After that meeting, the Kieltykas texted D-C football coach Mike Steinhaus to explain why his starting tackle hadn't shown up at school on the day D-C was scheduled to play top-ranked Cary-Grove. The Kieltykas asked to meet with him at the school to explain the situation.

Jake, 12 hours after learning the news, was feeling a bit overwhelmed. He told his coach he felt like he was letting his team down. A first-year head coach, Steinhaus gave his player sage advice.

"I told him missing a couple of games might seem like a big thing right now but it's a blip in the big scheme of things," Steinhaus said. "I told him we'd all be there for him and his family."

"He said it wasn't a big deal that I couldn't play in the game," Jake said. "He told me be strong. If anybody can do it, you can."

The pep talk had an affect on Jake, according to his mom.

"I swear, after that meeting Jake turned around and I think he got strong and was ready to face it," Jackie said. "Before he talked to (Steinhaus) he didn't even want to go to the game and didn't want to deal with the questions of why aren't you playing and everything else. By the time we were home from the meeting with coach, he was turning the corner."

Encouraged by the pep talk, Jake attended Dundee-Crown's game at Cary-Grove that night. When he arrived during warm-ups, his teammates, who by then had been briefed about the situation, greeted Jake with hugs and high-fives.

Steinhaus sent Kieltyka onto the field before the game with the captains for the coin toss, and Jake watched the contest from the sideline alongside his teammates. Later, he led the Chargers back onto the field for the second half. The show of support lifted the spirits of Jake and his family.

"They didn't get the win on the scoreboard that night, but those boys got a bigger win in life that day," Jackie said.

Three days later, Jake underwent a six-hour surgery to remove the ganglioglioma, which was an inch and a half by an inch and a half. The tumor had grown within two centimeters of the segment of the brain that controls speech and memory, Jackie said, which explained Jake's sensory symptoms during seizures.

Fortunately, this story has a happy ending.

According to the Kieltykas, Drs. Bertoglio and Mazin were able to remove the entire tumor, which a biopsy revealed to be benign a week later.

Jake spent two hours in recovery before his parents could visit him around 9 p.m. Several teammates and coaches stopped by to see him over the course of the next day, but they had to be quick about it since the fast-healing Kieltyka was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday, Oct. 22, less than 48 hours after surgery.

Jake said he felt fine. No pain. More importantly, no more seizures. He spent most of his first night at home returning texts and calls from well-wishers and greeting visitors like Steinhaus, who was among the first to stop by. Jake even felt good enough to post on Facebook, saying, "Well, the past couple of days have been crazy, but I kicked this thing's butt!"

He felt good enough on Thursday night to stop by the weekly team dinner at school. His teammates gave him a nice ovation when he entered the cafeteria.

Though he will need scans for several years to make sure he remains clear, Jake's doctors told him he should enjoy a full recovery. He said he learned a lesson from the experience he hopes others will heed: don't hide symptoms if something doesn't seem right.

"It's better to say something and realize it's not something to worry about than it is to find later it's super serious and be permanently damaged," he said. "They said if I hadn't said anything and just kept putting up with it, sooner or later it would have permanently damaged things."

In the short term, Jake can't play contact sports for six months until the incision is fully healed. That means the three-sport athlete won't be able to wrestle this winter or play catcher next spring for the baseball team. However, he does plan to return to the football field when summer camp begins.

"If I'm allowed to, yes, I definitely want to play," he said.

Oh, he's allowed to.

"If it all goes the way it's supposed to go, we're on board with it," Jackie said. "The doctor said he should be able to live a normal life and do normal things. Playing sports, that's who he is and what he does, so we expect him to be back it. They don't see any reason for that to be restricted.

"Except now he won't be running as much at football practice."

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.