Fraternity Brothers Rally Around Mentor Fighting To Walk Again
BOSTON (CBS) - A group of Northeastern fraternity brothers are rallying around a beloved mentor and teacher fighting to be able to walk again.
Chris Wiley, 29, walked into the hospital but after an aggressive infection, he is paralyzed from the waist down. Now the frat brothers are trying to help the man who changed their lives get back on his feet.
"He's done so much for us and it's time for us to really give it back to him," said Joe Liddy.
He's talking about the Northeastern grad and Delta Tau Delta member-turned-adviser who essentially scrapped his engineering degree to help tutor and mentor inner city kids -- and then sold these frat boys on the importance of doing the same.
"It brings tears to my eyes, it really does to know that he has touched so many people," said Lynda Johnson, Wiley's mother.
Wiley is a first year math teacher at Jeremiah Burke High in Dorchester where he was feeling so lousy last week, the principal suggested he go see a doctor.
"The doctor sent him right to the hospital," Liddy said.
It was a flesh-eating MRSA infection in his neck, requiring surgery at Boston Medical Center.
"However, somewhere along the line they discovered that he was paralyzed," Johnson said.
Indeed, the selfless man who motivated his frat to give back was now in need himself, unable to walk. So they've launched a "With-Wiley" GoFundMe campaign to help with his recovery.
"He's in good spirits because he knows that we are all behind him 100 percent and we're going to be with him every step of the way," Liddy said.
In the next few days, Wiley will move from the hospital to Spaulding Rehab where learning to operate from a wheelchair will top the list. Even as doctors aren't sure yet if the paralysis is permanent.
"Ready to support him so that he can try to walk again," Johnson said.
And his frat brothers will be there to encourage the man who always puts those less fortunate first.