A10 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2018
REGIONAL
Boy dies from rare flesh-eating bacteria
Nightmare started
with bike wreck;
fundraisers created
to help family
By KATHY ANEY
STAFF WRITER
Liam Flanagan seemed a
typical eight-year-old boy.
The Pilot Rock second
grader rode his bike, scarfed
down molasses cookies after
school and roughhoused
with his three step-brothers.
He loved to wear camo and
feed the animals on his fam-
ily’s farm.
But life, as the saying
goes, can turn on a dime.
On Jan. 13, Liam wrecked
his bike as he rode down a
hill on his family’s Spring
Creek property. Blood
seeped from a thigh wound
where the end of the handle-
bar sliced through his jeans.
An emergency room doc-
tor stitched him up and the
incident seemed destined to
fade from memory as just
another foible in the life of
an active young boy.
Several days later, how-
ever, Liam found himself
fighting for his life.
Flesh-eating
bacte-
ria, which likely entered
his wound from the soil,
attacked the boy’s soft tis-
sue. In the days to come he
would endure four surgeries
to remove infected tissue.
Liam’s mom, Sara Hebard
and stepfather, Scott Hinkle,
realized something wasn’t
right that Wednesday when
Liam complained of intense
pain in his groin area. Scott
took a look and reacted with
alarm at what he saw.
“It was purplish-red and
gangrenous looking,” he
said. “We threw him in the
rig and went like hell.”
After surgery at St.
Anthony Hospital to remove
infected tissue, Liam and his
mother flew by air ambu-
lance to Doernbecher Chil-
dren’s Hospital in Portland
early the next Thursday
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Liam Flanagan and Sara
Hebard attend the Pendleton
Round-Up several years ago.
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Scott Hinkle and Sara Hebard of Pilot Rock lost their son, Liam Flanagan, 8, pictured in the cell phone photo, after an eight-
day battle with a flesh-eating bacteria .
“We don’t want any other parents
to go through this.”
Scott Hinkle, Liam’s stepfather
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Liam Flanagan lies in his hospital bed during his battle with
necrotizing fasciitis.
morning. Scott stayed back
to care for the other boys. In
Portland, the surreal night-
mare continued as surgeons
tried to stay ahead of the rare
but deadly infection, known
as necrotizing fasciitis, by
amputating parts of the boy’s
body.
“They basically cut him
up piece by piece,” Scott
said.
“Almost his whole right
side was gone,” Sara said.
Short legislative session is
tight fit for big proposals
Local legislators
talk about what
they’re pitching in
35-day session
Sen. Bill
Hansell
Rep. Greg
Smith
By PHIL WRIGHT
STAFF WRITER
Rep. Greg Smith of Hep-
pner said he anticipates long
days when the legislature’s
short session convenes
Monday.
The Republican repre-
senting House District 57
has eight committee assign-
ments, including vice chair
on the House committee on
revenue, co-vice chair on
the joint committee on ways
and means and co-chair
on a ways and means
subcommittee.
“I’m really going to
spend the vast majority
of my time working pol-
icy issues through money,”
Smith said.
Some issues are heavy
lifts for the 35-day session,
such as the implications
the federal tax bill carries
for Oregon and the state’s
budget.
“Oregon is 100 percent
connected with federal tax
law,” Smith said, so law-
makers need to determine
whether any parts of Ore-
gon’s tax law should break
those connections. That’s
complicated, he said, and
the conversations will not
be easy.
Senate President Peter
Courtney, D-Salem, said at
an Associated Press forum
Monday “we’ve got a seri-
ous budget issue” because
of an expected deficit of
$200 million to $300 mil-
lion stemming from those
changes.
Republican Sen. Bill
Hansell of Athena said
reforming
the
Public
Employee Retirement Sys-
tem is another major piece
that comes with no easy
answers. Democratic Gov.
Kate Brown’s task force
on how to cover some of
the system’s $20-billion
unfunded liability included
selling off state universi-
ties and the State Accident
Insurance Fund. Hansell
called those bad ideas.
SAIF, he said, is one of Ore-
gon’s best functioning pro-
grams, so selling that makes
no sense.
Hansell said he believes
the short session should be
about tweaks to the state’s
budget, approving legisla-
tion that has broad biparti-
san support and amending
bills that made it into law
from the previous session.
Senators get to propose
one bill each while repre-
sentatives get two, and law-
makers have just 10 days to
shuttle legislation through
both chambers.
Smith will sponsor House
Bill 4153 to designate East-
ern Oregon University in La
Grande as the state’s rural
university. Smith said the
legislation is more than a
“feel good” proposal. The
designation would provide
EOU some protection from
closure or cuts during tough
economic times, he said,
while sending the message
the state’s smaller universi-
ties matter as much as their
larger compatriots.
Smith also said he is
learning more about edu-
cation policy because he
serves as vice chair of the
joint committee on student
success. Oregon needs to
take a good look at how edu-
cation is working and what
it should be doing better.
The Hermiston School
District, the largest in
Smith’s House district, had
the 21st worst graduation
rate in the state, accord-
ing to data from the Oregon
Department of Education.
Among the state’s largest
school districts, Hermiston
is eighth from the bottom.
Hansell said he will push
Senate Bill 1556 to help
community banks.
Those banks assign loans
to federal finance agen-
cies Fannie Mae and Fred-
die Mac, Hansell explained,
which require the banks to
use an electronic system to
file while prohibiting the
banks from recording the
loan assignments in the
county records. Hansell said
counties are suing the banks
to recover recording fees
and his bill would ban those
lawsuits. Nothing under
Oregon law requires coun-
ties to record the bank’s
assignments, he said, and
the counties are not entitled
to a recording fee.
Smith and Hansell also
emphasized
bipartisan-
ship would yield the best
solutions.
To see a full list of pro-
posals in the upcoming ses-
sion, visit www.oregonleg-
islature.gov.
laughing, joking and show-
ing his tubes.
“He told them ‘It’s just
going to be a couple of days
and I’ll be coming home,’”
Sara said. “He was so strong
and so brave.”
At one point, Liam was
feeling dehydrated and Sara
promised she wouldn’t eat or
drink until he was able. Liam
wouldn’t have it.
“He took my hand and
said he just needed a hug,”
she recalled.
Scott spoke to Liam for
the last time by phone on
Jan. 19.
“I told him to be strong
“They kept cutting and hop-
ing. Cutting and hoping.”
Eventually, as Liam kept
going downhill, he was
transferred to Randall Chil-
dren’s Hospital on Jan. 21
so another team could take
a look at the problem. That
night, Liam died.
Sara said she is still pro-
cessing. Her emotions run
the gamut. She smiles in
wonderment as she recalls
how he tried to keep his fam-
ily and friends from worry-
ing as he lay in his hospital
bed in a nest of tubes, elec-
trodes, cables and monitors.
He FaceTimed with friends,
and that he’d be OK,” Scott
said. “He said he missed
me.”
Now that Liam is gone,
Sara and Scott are reeling in
a rush of memories.
“He was a bright ray of
sunshine,” Sara said. “He
loved everyone and every-
one loved him. He was one
of those people who would
walk into a room and would
draw everyone.”
“He was a lovable kid,”
Scott said of the boy who
uncomplainingly helped him
build fences and do other
tasks around the farm. “He
never had a bad word to say.”
They are second-guess-
ing themselves. Maybe if
they’d gotten Liam to the
hospital sooner when he first
complained of pain they had
chalked up as normal. They
want other parents to know
about this flesh-eating bac-
teria, something they didn’t
previously know about.
“We don’t want any other
parents to go through this,”
Scott said.
The community is rais-
ing funds to help the fam-
ily with medical and funeral
expenses. A Gofundme
account had already raised
$43,000 as of Monday night
and accounts have been set
up at Banner Bank and Old
West Federal Credit Union.
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