A Young Player Redefines His Standard of Living

Each time 6-foot-6 junior center Conor Turley blocked a shot, took a charging foul or made a three-point basket for North Hollywood Campbell Hall this season, he added new meaning to the label “Comeback Kid.”

Three and a half years ago, Turley spent 42 days at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles because of severe internal bleeding from an autoimmune disorder.

“There was one night we didn’t think he was going to make it,” Turley’s father, Doug, said.

Turley wrote a four-page essay for his English class this month. The assignment was to reveal a secret.

He wrote about his illness and how his parents kept quiet the real possibility that he would die.

“I have lost my sense of time. This ordeal seems like one long day in a nightmare. How I wish I could wake up in a cold sweat and go back to the way life was. Friends, family, basketball, even school.... “

In September 2000, at the start of his eighth-grade year, Turley started suffering severe stomach cramps. He thought it was a simple case of the flu, because he was rarely sick. But he also had a headache, and blood spots were showing up all over his body.

He was admitted to Children’s Hospital so doctors could try to figure out what was wrong.

“I have not eaten real food and have yet to experience a single night of rest. I am fed intravenously. All I have left are my cherry chewable Tylenol that I don’t need for pain and the Lakers’ preseason games on television. I get an unexplainable pleasure from the texture yet delicateness of the tiny pills....”

Turley underwent 27 blood transfusions during his hospital stay. Doctors diagnosed him as having polyarteritis nodosa, a rare autoimmune disease that attacked his liver and midsize arteries in his bowel.

During his stay, Turley was adamant that he wanted to leave the hospital for one day so he could celebrate his older brother’s going-away party. Dutch Turley was leaving on a two-year Mormon mission, and Conor was determined to attend the church gathering to say goodbye.

“I go to church and the congregation of about 700 acts like they had seen a ghost. People whisper, ‘Look, he’s here!’ I look like a ghost: pale face, a skinny frail body, and I need help to walk. My friends barely recognize me. I have lost nearly 40 pounds and all my muscles have atrophied.... “

Turley was supposed to stand at a podium and wish his brother farewell. He ended up being too weak to stand and too nauseated to talk. He fainted twice.

“Everyone in the congregation watches in horror as I am carried to the parking lot on the shoulders of four men. I am delusional and demand to be put down. I am oblivious to the events that have just occurred.... “

Turley insisted on attending the going-away party at his house. He went to sit on a leather chair in the family room. His condition deteriorated. He was rushed back to the hospital.

“I am wheeled into the Intensive Care Unit with all of my family watching. They take my blood and put a rush on the results. I cannot control my bowel movements riddled with blood. The smell is horrendous. At this point, about 15 nurses, doctors and interns pile into the room. The doctors say something to my father, and he pulls my mother aside....”

Turley underwent six blood transfusions that night. It was the night his parents were told he might not survive.

Except Turley never thought of death.

“I always thought I’d make it,” he said. “I had faith God would help me get through it.”

On the day he was released from the hospital, he tried to shoot a basketball at home. It was an airball.

“It went about a foot,” his mother, Victoria, said. “He just laughed and said, ‘Oh my God, this is horrible.’ ”

Turley underwent chemotherapy for more than a year. Former Laker Mark Madsen, now with the Minnesota Timberwolves, spent two hours with him at the hospital trying to lift his spirits. Slowly, he began to regain his strength and skills. He played junior varsity as a freshman at Campbell Hall and varsity last season.

This season for the Vikings (26-3), he averaged nine points and 6.9 rebounds until they were eliminated from the Southern Section Division IV-AA playoffs Tuesday night.

He no longer takes medication and has been given a clean bill of health.

“He’s our most improved player and our best post player,” Coach Terry Kelly said. “It’s amazing what he’s overcome and what he’s taught me about priorities.”

Turley, who has a 3.9 grade-point average, shakes his head when he hears classmates complaining about homework or meals. He has come to understand that every day is precious.

His essay concluded with a question for his mother.

“What did the doctor say to Dad that night? She recalled matter of factly, ‘The doctor said that your blood counts were fatally low and that you needed blood immediately. Your father pulled me out of the room and told me that you were dying. He said that he had seen death before and this was it. ...”

Asked what his ordeal taught him, Turley said, “I learned that you can get through almost anything.”