I’m happy to announce that my Student of the Month for October is Highlands High School senior Nico Horneman. Nico has spent much of his high school career dealing with tremendous obstacles, from the discovery of a brain tumor, to the unexpected complications of its removal and the difficulties left after the surgery. He’s a warrior worthy of recognition, he’s made sacrifices and fought hard to to succeed in spite of his great trials.
I hope you are all as encouraged by his perseverance as I am. I have sent Nico a gift basket as a small token of appreciation for the great inspiration he is. I’m grateful to his Spanish teacher Joe Novak for sharing his story with me. You can read his full submission at the bottom of this post to learn more about Nico.
Submissions are now being taken for the month of November, so if you’d like to nominate your student, please head over to this post.
God bless!
Troy
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Nico Horneman has endured more than most people in the last couple years. In August 2011 we discovered Nico had a grape size hard tumor behind his right ear. We were referred to a Plastic Surgeon at Childrens Hospital. His CT showed that Nico had a bone tumor in the mastoid area of his skull. He was scheduled to have surgery to remove it on Oct. 21st (1 day after his 16th birthday). The surgeon told us it would be an easy procedure (3 hours or so) and Nico would come out of surgery with minor pain and only 1 or 2 days in the hospital. On the day of surgery we noticed that it was taking longer than we were told. His surgery ended up being more complex. His tumor ended up being deeper than originally thought, and if it wasn’t removed, he could have had a stroke due to it’s location. He needed a blood transfusion and spent time in the ICU. The next step was for him to recuperate at home and wait for the biopsy results. His biopsy took several weeks but luckily it came back benign. The tumor was diagnosed as a Protuberant-fibro osseous lesion of the temporal bone/mastoid area. Nico is only the 3rd case known to have this type of tumor. A few months after his surgery he started having severe anxiety and panic attacks. We had him seen by a therapist and he was diagnosed with post traumatic stress induced anxiety. Nico was put on medication but to this day still struggles with trying to control it. Nico still gets pain through the right side of his head and it can very easily throw him into a “flashback” of the pain he had and his traumatic experience. He gets anxiety attacks randomly and has to work hard to try to calm himself down. Nico has also been dealing with tremendous bouts of lightheadedness and we have not been able to find the cause. He had to give up football which he absolutely loved.
Nico has been making amazing strides during his recovery. He just made eagle scout. He built a 100 foot boardwalk going across the pond at Harrison Hills. His progress in my Spanish class has been outstanding, and his ability to handle stressful situations keeps improving every day.
Everyone involved with Nico is extremely proud of him and what he’s been able to endure.
Pat miller
As to date my grandson in 5th grade since pre school as never brought home any thing but straight A’s. He has never got anything on any paper but an A. Wants to be wild animal vet and with those grades I know he will make it.
Ruth
I would like to nominate both of my granddaughters.
Alexis Gibson is in 8th grade at Butler Junior
High school and she is in mostly honors classes.
Her last report card was all As except for two
Bs and she has Cystic Fibrosis and an enlarged spleen
and problems with her liver and stomach. She
Is 14 years old. Her
sister Hanna Gibson also has Cystic Fibrosis.
She is 6 years old and in 1st grade at Emily
Britain school in Butler Pa. She also is a very
good student. She is one of 4 students out of 20
That is in the higher reading group. Her teacher just
gave her more challenging reading to do for
homework because she is ahead of the other
students.