TEAM WORK — Without the observation of his teachers at Gillett School, Isiah Collins, now a seventh grader at Memorial Middle School, could have suffered permanent brain damage due to a medical condition. Pictured sitting is Isiah; standing from left, Lucy Villarreal, Gillett assistant principal; Dalia Arguillin, sixth grade math teacher; Barbara Collins, Isiah’s mother; Robert Custer, sixth grade social studies teacher; and Judith Stowers, sixth grade science teacher (Photo by Erika Hernandez) While most children spent their summer hanging out with their friends, lounging on the sofa, or playing Call of Duty on their Xbox 360’s, twelve-year-old Isiah Collins, of Kingsville, spent his summer recovering from brain surgery due to a condition called hydrocephalus; a condition that might not have been found if it wasn’t for the initial concern of one of his teachers at J.S. Gillett Intermediate School.

Isiah’s journey to surgery began when Robert Custer, a 6th grade social studies teacher with 20 years of experience in the field, began noticing a difference in Isiah as this past school year progressed.

“I noticed he was having some difficulties in class and he began falling behind in his class work,” Custer said. “He was not able to process things and even after having to repeat myself 20 times he still could not follow direction or do things on his own. I would say something and he could hear it and repeat it but he could not understand it.”

Custer notified Isiah’s mother Barbara of the situation and began tutoring Isiah after school in order to bring him back up to speed; Barbara would sometimes sit in class with Isiah as well in order to monitor him in the classroom environment.

“We would stay after school and Barbara and I would sit with him and go through the class work, sometimes until as late as 6:30 or 7:00 p.m., and in observing him we decided that this was something serious that was beyond a simple learning disability.”

Custer said Isiah had previously been a good student and also asked some of the 5th grade teachers how Isiah preformed in their classes the previous year and they had nothing but positive remarks.

“I also started asking Dalia Argullin, his math teacher, Judith Stowers, his science teacher, and Amy Hrncir, his English teacher, if they had noticed anything different in him and we were all at a consensus that he was falling behind in every subject,” Custer said.

Argullin, said she noticed Isiah’s rapid decline in her class the most.

“In math, students must use certain thought processes to solve problems and Isiah could not complete his work at all,” she said.

While working with Isiah’s teachers, Barbara notified Lucy Villarreal, J.S. Gillett Assistant Principal, of the situation and asked that Isiah be tested to see if he qualified for special education modifications.

“Mrs. Collins came to me with her concerns, she suspected there was a possible learning disability and asked if he could be tested for special education so I explained to her that there had to be a pre-referral, which consists of three meetings prior to a special education referral and told her our counselor, Monika Garza, would be notifying her for those meetings.” Villarreal said.

“They met and started monitoring his grades and behavior and that’s when everyone saw all of the pieces falling together with Isiah and the drastic changes that were occurring,” she said.

Custer said that even if Isiah had been identified as a special needs student that his symptoms and differences still would have been severe even on that scale.

Although the most evident changes in Isiah were in his academic subjects, he also suffered in extra-curricular activities as well.

“He is a percussion student in the school band and could not coordinate the banging of the tambourine as directed,” Barbara said. “As a result, he was taken off of the instrument.”

Villarreal mentioned that she saw physical changes in Isiah as well.

“I would notice that he would walk with his head down in the hallway and his posture would change,” she said. “He also wouldn’t smile as much.”

Barbara and her husband James Collins began paying more attention to what was happening at home and noticed several changes in their son as well.

“I make and pack his lunch everyday and when I would ask him later on that day what he ate for lunch he could not remember,” she said. “When we had company with younger kids he would get very irritable and he was never like that before.”

She also said that Isiah could not eat normally; he could not get the food to his mouth and would drop majority of it on himself because his coordination was off.

Isiah said he noticed things as well but it wasn’t until he could not ride his bicycle, which is something he does all the time, that he knew something was wrong.

“I put one foot on the pedal then tried to put my other foot on the other pedal and could not do it,” he said. “It was frustrating.”

Barbara said she was out there that day and saw everything that happened.

“At this point I was watching him like a hawk and when I saw that incident I mentioned it to my husband who mentioned to me how Isiah no longer wanted to watch sports with him when that used to be something they both enjoyed doing,” she said. “I thought maybe it was just him growing up and wanting to spend more time doing his own thing.”

Barbara said once school let out in June that was when Isiah began getting even worse.

“He started sleeping all day and had no energy so I brought him to a summer program at the school and the directors asked me if something was wrong with him because he could not do simple tasks like running,” she said.

Convinced that something was seriously wrong with her son, she took Isiah to a local pediatrician in early June and just by hearing his symptoms the doctor was quick to diagnose the familiar attention deficit disorder (ADD).

“Just by hearing that he was doing poorly in school the doctor automatically said ADD and I knew that he was wrong,” Barbara said. “I was telling the doctor all of the other symptoms as well but he didn’t hear any of that, all he heard was the ‘doing poorly in school’ part.”

Custer said ADD calls for a child who doesn’t pay attention at all but Isiah was paying attention, he could tell you the last thing that was said, he just couldn’t connect it and piece it together.

“It was obvious that this was not ADD, the problems were way more severe than that,” Custer said. “Beyond the processing alone he was having difficulty doing everyday tasks by the end of the school year, even with something as simple as controlling his urinary function and for a twelveyear old that is a red flag.”

Barbara demanded that the pediatrician give her a referral to a neurologist and the doctor was hesitant and began making excuses.

“I told the doctor, look, I will go and find my own neurologist I just need a referral from you. After all of that a week later I got a referral in the mail,” she said.

Once Barbara and her husband took Isiah to the neurologist in Corpus Christi, things started becoming clearer.

“He examined him thoroughly, checked his coordination, balance, and strength, and when he checked his eyes he could not see his optical nerve,” she said. “The doctor told me the optical nerve should be clearly visible and ordered an MRI that same day, once the MRI was complete that’s when the hydrocephalus, or fluid in the brain, was discovered.”

The doctor told Barbara and James that Isiah’s condition was very serious because the fluid in his brain was three times greater than normal and the condition could be fatal if they had not scheduled emergency surgery the next day, June 24, to remove the blockage.

Surgery was a success and Barbara said recovery was slow but steady and today he is about 80 percent of the way.

“After about a week he started coming back little by little and now just looking at him you wouldn’t think there was anything wrong with him,” she said.

Barbara notified Custer of the diagnosis and when they looked at the symptoms of hydrocephalus, which effects motor skills, thought processes, memory, coordination, and balance, that’s when everything fell into place.

“The symptoms Isiah had fit perfectly with this condition and it was like piecing a puzzle together, everything made sense,” Custer said.

Just two months shy of the surgery, Isiah is back to watching sports and being active and preparing himself for seventh grade at Memorial Middle School on Monday.

“Isiah is going into school with no special modifications and I have already been in contact with the counselors so we can all plan out what’s going to happen throughout the year.” Barbara said. “Even though he loves sports we took him out of athletics for the year in order to give him time to fully recover and hopefully he can get back in next year.”

She said Isiah would have a math tutor throughout the fall semester because that is the subject that he fell most behind in.

“We made sure Isiah read throughout the rest of the summer and he is pretty strong in his other subjects so math is what we are focusing on,” Barbara said.

As for this new school year, Isiah will continue to play in the school band and be participating in Boy Scouts.

“In prepping for school again, I have also given him a time management plan and he has to write down and tell me every hour what he has done from eight to five, that way he gets out of the habit of napping or playing video games during the day,” Barbara said.

During the interview Isiah was quick to ask, “Can I play video games when I get home?” and Barbara laughed and mentioned that his current favorite game is UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), she nodded and his face lit up with a huge smile.

While Barbara thanks the teachers and staff who were involved, they are so grateful to her for her vigilance in doing anything and everything to find out what was going on with her son.

“Barbara has to be given a lot of credit because the parents are an important part of the outcome; we cannot do things and put things together without the parent’s involvement,” Villarreal said. “Sometimes when parents are notified of their children’s irregular behavior and performance in school they automatically get defensive and feel that their child is being singled out but Barbara worked hand-in-hand with everyone here and we are so grateful.”

Barbara countered, “I didn’t take anything personal and I took the teacher’s suggestions and continued monitoring him at home and am so thankful for Mr. Custer because things could have turned out much differently.”

Custer was quick to acknowledge that he did not do this on his own and praises all of the staff involved as well as Barbara for her continued perseverance.

“Had we not worked so closely together as a group of teachers with the parents we probably would not have put all the pieces together until he got much worse than he was and had severe permanent brain damage,” Custer said. “I cannot take all of the credit, it was truly a team effort.”

Upon hearing Isiah’s story, Kingsville ISD Superintendent Emilio Castro spoke highly of Custer and other staff members involved.

“Robert Custer’s actions exemplify the incredible importance of positive student-teacher relationships. His efforts and those of other staff members created a caring environment so that Isaiah’s mother, Barbara, felt comfortable enough to work with and through staff to ultimately take action that saved his life,” he said. “What a true testament to the power of positive relationships between home and school.”