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Have you ever met a superhero?
Some can be mild-mannered and jump tall buildings in a single bounce.
Others are mysterious or brash millionaires who can be described as vigilantes.
Then there’s Kaden Stevenson, a fourth grader at Brendel Elementary School in Grand Blanc.
He doesn’t wear a cape or have a fancy ride to get around.
The quiet 10-year-old with black and brown dread locks that cover his eyes possesses a superpower topping any other: determination.
His story is told in a new comic book, Kaden Blaze Fights the Flu Bug, through Families Fighting Flu.
“It has just been amazing to see how resilient my son is,” said Michele Stevenson, Kaden’s mother during a recent comic book signing at Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital in Grand Rapids.
‘The most scared I’ve ever been’
It was a few days before Christmas in 2022 when Michele took her son to Hurley Medical Center in Flint when he was less energetic than usual.
“He’d start talking about pain in his leg. I noticed a rash all over his body. He was in so much pain,” she said. “Before I got him in the car, I couldn’t put his coat on. I couldn’t put his shoes on.
“I made the decision that I wasn’t taking him to urgent care because there’s something really going on and I have to take him to (the) emergency (room).”
After getting to the hospital, he was airlifted a short time later to Helen Devos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids.
Kaden was diagnosed with influenza A and Streptococcus.
An infection in his blood caused him to experience toxic shock syndrome, his organs shutting down, with Michele having called the first few weeks of his illness “the most scared I’ve ever been.”
“I did blame myself for a long time. I examined myself for a long time because I’m like, maybe if I had gotten my son his flu shot earlier. I got my flu shot. Like, how selfish,” she said. “You know, I got mine and I didn’t get his right away, but I never knew anybody who got this sick from flu.”
But through the most traumatic moments of her life, the inner strength of her son has shone through.
“Just how he hasn’t let life get him down,” she said. “To see how far he has come now, not letting things get him down, not giving up, wanting to love for other kids who did not make it, especially from the flu.”
It takes a village
While he was in a hospital bed, Michele noticed her son had created a bond with a 5-year-old boy at the facility.
“Kaden said he wanted to live for that boy. He was going to survive was his words,” she recalled. “And he’s surviving. And we will do whatever we can do to continue to bring hope and inspiration to other kids and adults.”
Both of Kaden’s legs had to be amputated due to the infection. His right leg was amputated above his knee, while his left leg was amputated below his knee.
Kaden was transferred to Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital as he continued in his recovery process.
Morgan Leavitt was at the hospital as nurse technician when he was there as a patient.
But she’s had the chance to see Kaden on the basketball court as a nurse at wheelchair sports camp through Mary Free Bed.
“He was shy at first, so he took a little while to warm up, but then you could, like, crack a smile every now and then,” said Leavitt, who’s now a registered nurse in the pediatrics unit at Mary Free Bed. “His first year at camp, he was still that little shy, shy kid. But at the end of the week, he totally, like, broke out of his shell. Year two, even more. And year three, which was this past summer, was even more so.
“Seeing him adapt to the physical changes and the mental changes, it was just like night and day. He’s amazing.”
Leavitt said despite all they are going through, “kids are kids,” even in the hospital.
“They want to play, they don’t care nearly as much as you think that they do that they’re sick,” she said. “They just want to have fun and play at the end of the day.
“Seeing that resilience and strength give me, like, myself, resilience and strength. Because if Kaden can go through what he went through, I can too.”
Coach Lee Montgomery has seen resilience develop in countless players over the years.
He leads the Mary Free Bed Pacers wheelchair basketball teams. Montgomery was a 2015 National Wheelchair Basketball Association Hall of Fame inductee.
“You see them getting very active and then the other thing you see is happiness, and that’s the important part of it all,” said Montgomery, who was born with limb differences. “They can see that, hey, I can have fun at doing this and that would then motivate them to be better.”
Getting a chance to see how Kaden operates on the court, the coach said, “he’s going to be a heck of a player.”
“I just happen to be part of something that can help move them, motivate them to do something other than nothing,” Montgomery said.
Michele thanked them all during a recent comic book signing at Mary Free Bed for everything they have done for her son.
“I just would like to say thank you for always being there for us, always supporting us, taking care of my baby and helping us get to where we are today,” she said.
Inspired to inspire
Kaden is now using his story to help inspire others through their situations and bring awareness to the severity of the flu.
Kaden became involved with Families Fighting Flu, a nonprofit organization focused on telling stories of those who’ve been impacted by the flu and promote vaccination and awareness.
The child of few words has been thrust under the spotlight; with a new comic book he helped create entitled “Kaden Blaze Fights Flu Bug.”
“The first time we met Kayden and Michelle, hearing Kayden’s story was so powerful. Michelle sharing how Kaden was in the hospital with another child and the impact that made because the other child was ill with the flu but did not survive,” said Michele Slafkosky, executive director of Families Fighting Flu. “And yet Kayden survived with the complications that he has today, the double amputation on his legs and some heart complications. He knew then there was something, a reason he was here.
“He said that to us. Michelle said that to us. And I had a conversation with them, and Kaden mentioned wanting to be a superhero. And I asked Kaden, ‘do you want us to make you a superhero?’ And he said, yes.”
The comic book tells the story of a superhero based on Kaden, shares his origin story and how getting vaccinated can help fight the flu to help reduce hospitalizations, deaths and complications.
Zach Yaksich is one of the founders of the organization.
His daughter, Alana, died from complications of the flu in February 2003. She was 5 years old.
“At that time, I had no idea that you could, that people ever died from the flu,” said Yaksich, who was offering vaccinations in December during a comic book signing for Kaden at the Mary Free Bed YMCA. “I just felt that it was my job, my duty for my daughter’s legacy to try to minimize this and not allow it to happen to other families.”
While he tried to change people’s minds about vaccinations in the past, Yaksich said he now offers his personal experience to open a conversation with people.
“I think the story is really what I have to offer and I think that if people take the moment to listen to the stories such as Alana’s, Kaden’s, and then take a moment to pause and if they still have further questions, go to resources that are respectable and accountability instead of just searching for your own narrative,” he said.
In sharing her son’s own story, Michele said there’s so much love he holds inside.
“He is the sweetest little boy that you’ll ever know. He is super giving. He will put other people before himself,” she said of Kaden. “He doesn’t want anybody to be upset if you asked him, like, who’s your favorite doctor? (He’d say) they’re all my favorite doctor.
“He will never point out one person like that. That is just the type of person he is. He’s an amazing kid. He’s super competitive okay, don’t get me wrong, but he, he is such a great, caring, loving kid.”