Suddenly struck with bacterial meningitis, Zyp was in a medically induced coma for weeks. He woke up to discover that both his legs and part of his right hand had been amputated. He spent months in hospital. He has had multiple skin grafts.

Despite the dramatic turn of events in his life, he hasn’t lost the faith that helped him and his family through the last year or his sense of humour.

“I don’t really use it as my opener ‘Hi, how are you? I’m a meningitis survivor,’ ” Zyp joked.

He vividly remembers that day everything changed.

It was Feb. 28, 2016, when he and his wife, Trina Heron, were watching the Academy Awards — a tradition for the 45-year-old Edmonton teacher, actor and radio DJ. As they enjoyed the show, the mild flu-like symptoms, shortness of breath and lack of appetite that Zyp had been feeling all day began to intensify.

Later in the evening, Zyp’s condition deteriorated to the point that his wife took him to the University of Alberta Hospital for examination. Suddenly, there was a flurry of activity as medical staff surrounded him.

To save his life, doctors intentionally placed him into a coma.

“They told me to count back from 100, and basically I started to count back from 100 and that’s one of the last things I really solidly remember up until about six weeks later,” Zyp said.

His meningitis is rare, and so were the complications.

To prevent his fingers from seizing, he faced months of therapy at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital. However, Zyp’s commitment and strength of spirit were so strong that the Glenrose named him to receive a Courage Award for determination throughout his rehabilitation.

“He gave it 110 per cent every day. Oh, there were complaints, but he would still go ahead with it,” said occupational therapist Dan Yeung, whom Zyp affectionately calls The Crippler.

Zyp said he never had a sense of bitterness, anger or self-pity. It was a matter of dealing with the situation.

“I hated where I was at sometimes, when I couldn’t drink water at all, when I couldn’t eat because I had a feeding tube. These were things that tortured me, when they had taken the skin off my back, and they had to roll me, when I was basically mummified.”

At Holy Trinity High School in south Edmonton, where his students simply call him “Zyp,” news of their beloved drama teacher’s situation was a shock, especially so close to the staging of their school play.

“One, what do we do? Our show is set to go up one week from the day he got sick, and oh my gosh, Zyp might die!” recalls Moia Calkins, a Grade 12 student.

“We were hearing bad news and bad news. We hadn’t seen him, and he was still in his medically induced coma, so it was a really tough time.”

Damian Lachacz, a Grade 11 student, was on a Quebec trip when he heard about his teacher’s illness and prayed at the shrine of St. Anne de Beaupré, the patron saint of the sick and suffering.

“I went to this church thinking of Zyp and I prayed for his recovery. I made sure I wouldn’t leave anything behind. I left it to St. Anne’s intercession.”

By the end of March, Zyp was back in the classroom and a few months later, he was back hosting his radio show on CJSR. He said prayer, his own faith, and the love of his wife Trina and his family continues to sustain him.

“The amount of prayer circles, the amount of group prayers, the amount of positivity that they sent my way, it helped me recover,” Zyp said. “And not in the way that it saved me from the brink of death. But more in this way of that kind of outpouring of love and caring.

“I think that you have to believe that it can help affect you.”

Calkins vividly recalls the day her teacher was back in the classroom. Like the receiving line at a wedding reception, students stood waiting to welcome Zyp.

“It was incredibly emotional,” said Calkins. “I got teared up. He got teared up. Everyone in the room was, like, waterworks.”

Zyp is proud of his accomplishments, but realizes he has “much further to go.” He’s come to terms with the fact life will be different. He has two prosthetic legs. He faces more surgeries and therapy. But he hasn’t run out of goals.

“I’m not done yet by any means. The dream is to run at some point. Right now it’s not possible, but it is possible.”

(Ehrkamp is news editor of Grandin Media in Edmonton.)