Youth fights complications from head injury

Wahkiakum High School student Beau Carlson, who sustained a head injury while making a tackle in a football game a little over a month ago, was back in the hospital three days after being released from Seattle’s Children’s hospital on September 28.

According to Amber Wassell Mace, who set up a Go Fund Me account for Carlson and his family, Beau is at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, fighting a bacterial infection in his brain. It has caused inflammation and resulted in debilitating headaches, nausea, and swelling.

“The inflammation of the brain is causing the over accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid to the inflamed areas,” Mace wrote in an update on October 7, “and the fluid is carrying the bacteria so it is a constant battle to keep the infection under control.”

Carlson is on what Mace described as an “artillery of antibiotics” and pain pills to try and keep him comfortable, but the active young man admitted he was frustrated; he doesn’t like to sit around, and he wants to be home with family and friends.

“Beau is in stable condition,” Mace wrote, “but also a very sick boy. At this point [the family] expect to be at Doernbechers another 7-10 days, even when he goes home he will be on some strong antibiotics for at least three weeks.”

Beau’s mother Leihanna has been with him constantly, and his father Brad and siblings were driving back and forth first to Seattle and now to Portland to be with him.

Donations can be made at gofundme.com/carlson-strong. Contact Amber Wassell Mace at 360-430-9690 if you would like to donate but would prefer not to use Go Fund Me. She has been accepting gift cards, cash and checks for the family, and working with people who want to make dinner for them as well.