{"id":23858,"date":"2024-12-06T09:11:07","date_gmt":"2024-12-06T14:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/?p=23858"},"modified":"2024-12-06T09:11:07","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T14:11:07","slug":"life-changing-illness-inspires-siblings-paths-at-esu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/life-changing-illness-inspires-siblings-paths-at-esu\/","title":{"rendered":"Life-Changing Illness Inspires Siblings\u2019 Paths at ESU"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When East Stroudsburg University freshman Madison Siggins was in fourth grade, what started as a stomach virus spiraled into a frightening, months-long medical crisis that left her unable to eat, walk or communicate effectively.<\/p>\n<p>Now a member of ESU\u2019s women\u2019s basketball team after a standout high school sports career, Madison\u2019s long road to recovery not only gave her a second chance at life, it also inspired her brother, senior ESU football player John Siggins, to pursue a degree in nursing so he could make a similar impact in the lives of others.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"float:right; margin: 0 0 15px 15px;\" width=\"310\" height=\"174\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zO9DDw9njeY\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\u201cShe was pretty close to not making it,\u201d said John, who was in eighth grade at the time.\u00a0 \u201cBeing around that experience really affected me and so I decided I wanted to help people out the same way my sister was helped out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Madison said her ordeal began innocently enough. She caught a stomach virus that refused to go away. As doctors searched for answers, her condition worsened. Migraines followed and the pain from swallowing became so intense she struggled to eat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was just bones,\u201d Madison said. \u201cIt was not good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Months went by with no improvement. Madison underwent frequent tests but found no definitive explanation for her symptoms. She was eventually sent to the Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), where she was placed on a feeding tube. Soon, her illness began to affect her memory and her ability to walk and talk.<\/p>\n<p>Madison said though she never learned an exact cause, doctors believe it was a type of conversion disorder, a neurological condition that affects the nervous system but features symptoms that can\u2019t be explained by a neurological disease or other medical condition, according to the Mayo Clinic.<\/p>\n<p>As time went on, Madison and her family shifted their focus from seeking a cause to finding a solution. After receiving treatment and being released from CHOP, she entered Good Shepherd Rehabilitation in Allentown, where she took on the arduous process of relearning how to move, speak and feed herself.<\/p>\n<p>The recovery was a long, difficult journey \u2013 it wasn\u2019t until her junior year of high school that she felt like herself again \u2013 but Madison refused to give up on her goals by letting her condition win, she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wanted to be in my family\u2019s life,\u201d she said. \u201cI wanted to be a teacher. I wanted to play college basketball. I wanted all those things for myself and so I knew if I kept pushing every single day and relied on the people I love to support me, I would make it to where I am now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On Madison\u2019s worst days, John was determined to be a distraction, he said. One day while she was still at CHOP, he took her in her wheelchair to an outdoor basketball hoop at the hospital so she could shoot around with him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI knew I just needed to be there for her and get her mind off all the negativity around her,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>That thoughtfulness is one of the qualities that makes John the right fit for a career in nursing, Madison said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe wants the best for other people,\u201d she said. \u201cHe wants them to be successful and healthy, and he\u2019s going to work his hardest behind the scenes to make sure he has all the tools to make that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pursuing a nursing degree while playing football was no guarantee. John said the combination was discouraged by other colleges he visited due to the major time commitment required by each. He was grateful to ESU, the football program, and the College of Health Sciences for giving him the freedom to do both.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m able to be where I am today thanks to the help of everyone in the nursing program, and I\u2019m just so blessed I was given this opportunity by ESU to do two things I love,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to the knowledge and skills he gained in the nursing program, which included a recent externship at Lehigh Valley Hospital Pocono, John recently accepted a full-time nursing job at Lehigh Valley Hospital Cedar Crest.<\/p>\n<p>Madison, meanwhile, is majoring in elementary education with a minor in special education. John expects her to excel in the role.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe\u2019ll make a great teacher because she really cares about the people whose lives she\u2019s affecting,\u201d John said.<\/p>\n<p>Both siblings credited their sports backgrounds for instilling in them the mindset to get through Madison\u2019s health scare, particularly their success at Parkland High School near Allentown.<\/p>\n<p>There, Madison finished her high school basketball career with 1,214 points, was a two-year captain of her team and was named Parkland Female Athlete of the Year. John earned honors in basketball, volleyball and football, including being named Parkland Football MVP and Parkland Male Athlete of the Year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re hard on each other but I think that\u2019s what makes us good athletes,\u201d John said. \u201cShe pushes me, and I push her because we both see what the other is capable of.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With Madison and John each at opposite ends of their college careers, both are looking forward to spending their lone year on campus together rooting for one other \u2013 in athletics and in everyday life.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just want him to have all the success because he deserves it so much,\u201d Madison said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe gave my life a purpose,\u201d John added. \u201cI can\u2019t wait to see the person she is going to become.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When ESU freshman Madison Siggins was in fourth grade, what started as a stomach virus spiraled into a frightening, months-long medical crisis that left her unable to eat, walk or communicate effectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":23860,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[143,42,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-news-release","category-slider"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23858"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23858"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23861,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23858\/revisions\/23861"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}