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Aizik Lopez takes a picture of the billboard in east Wichita that has a picture of him posing with a front kick. Lopez was a patient at Wesley Medical Center in the spring.

After spider bite, teen gets name in spotlight
By Chris Strunk
Last Updated: September 28, 2017

“Even black belts get hurt sometimes."

That's true, but Aizik Lopez of Valley Center has had his share already.

The 13-year-old Valley Center Middle School student — and first-degree black belt in taekwondo — spent five days in the hospital this spring recovering from a spider bite.

Now, he's the face of an advertising campaign for the hospital that treated him.

“It was super painful," Lopez said of his recovery. “The good part is I got onto the billboard."

A large roadside billboard promoting Wesley Medical Center's emergency room has a picture of Lopez posing with a front kick. One version said, “Welcome to summer" with a box around the letters ER. It was on East Kellogg in Wichita. A newer version has the “black belts" slogan.

Lopez' name, accompanied by “Valley Center," is printed next to him.

“It's kind of cool," Lopez said.

It wasn't cool in May.

Three days before the end of his seventh-grade school year, Lopez woke up in bad shape. He threw up and his face began swelling, starting with his left cheek. After a while, he could barely see out of both eyes.

Benedryl didn't help, so the family took Lopez to the Wesley emergency room.

Doctors weren't sure what was causing the swelling. For three days, his condition went undiagnosed, until his father made an unlikely discovery.

A dead brown recluse spider was found on Lopez's bed.

Doctors figured the spider bit Lopez, but his symptoms weren't typical. Instead of experiencing a deterioration of the skin around the bite, Lopez had a rare medical condition that caused his body to prevent necrosis.

The condition was both confounding and a blessing.

“If he didn't have the rare condition, he would've lost the side of his face and possibly his eye," said Lopez' mother, Elizabeth Bowman.

Lopez was given medication to temporarily shut down his immune system.

He stayed in the hospital for two more days. And about five days later, the swelling went down completely.

Meanwhile, Wesley approached the family about the ad campaign. They agreed to participate.

“He was worried they wanted to do it while his face was still swollen," Bowman said. “… He was a good patient. No matter how much pain he was in, he always said please and thank you and was very polite. He's a good kid."

Lopez said he appreciated the hospital's care.

“They constantly checked up on me every, like every 30 minutes, and gave me food," he said. “… It was good."

Lopez has been training in martial arts since he was 6 years old. He said he's never been hurt in the sport.

So when asked what he thought of the campaign slogan “Even black belts get hurt," Lopez said: “It's just kind of weird. I hurt them."





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