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Area group donates computer system
for boy recovering from back surgery

Click photo to enlarge

SUPERIOR — Following 13 hours of back surgery last week, Justin Anderson faces the prospect of months in bed. But, thanks to a Superior charity, the rural Stromsburg boy will have computer equipment to help him pass the time and even do some schoolwork.

When 12-year-old Justin returned to his home Wednesday, a week after a his surgery, he found the computer equipment waiting for him.

Former Superior Mayor Harry Robinson had read in the Hastings Tribune an Associated Press story about Justin, who was born with a condition known as VATER Syndrome.

Justin, whose parents are Brian and Kelli Anderson, already had survived two open heart surgeries. He was facing a third major surgery Nov. 18, to repair a crippled back.

Robinson said that when he learned of Justin’s situation, he immediately thought of the Superior Pawnee Computer Society, which takes used computers, refurbishes them and provide them to schools, churches, nursing homes, senior citizens centers, after-school tutoring programs and nonprofit agencies. “This boy would be a great candidate for one of their computers,” Robinson recalled thinking before he began seeking more information.

While Justin was at the University of Iowa Hospital in Iowa City, recovering from having his back straightened, Robinson was tracking down the boy’s grandparents, Gary and Wanda Allison, who also live near Stromsburg, and setting up transfer of a computer.

On Wednesday, the Allisons drove to Superior to accept the gift of a computer with a 6-megabyte hard drive, 4,000-megahertz speed and 64-kilobyte memory from Sharon Yost, a Superior resident who is the SPCS president. The Allisons also took home a printer specifically donated for Justin by Superior businesswoman June Russell.

“You don’t know how much this is going to mean to Justin,” Mrs. Allison said.

Justin is going to be in a full-body cast for six months, lying flat on his back, not putting any weight on the spine. He will be able to recline at a 20-degree angle, but that is all.

Gary Allison said Justin had been keeping up with his schoolwork until this surgery. Justin attends Cross County Public Schools. The school district offers a program that allows students to submit classwork on the computer. Allison said he expected Justin would be taking advantage of that program as he was able.

According to the nurses the Allisons had spoken with, the type of surgery Justin had is the most painful known. Gary said. The surgeons took the crooked vertebrae out and put rods in to straighten his back. They then removed muscles from the area, packed it with bone chips from his hips, returned the muscles and closed the area. It will take six months for the bone chips to fuse into bones, Allison said.

Justin is no stranger to pain, having been born with VATER syndrome and undergone the two open-heart surgeries. His lungs are weak, and he has frequent bouts with pneumonia.

While the Allisons were in Superior, they received a telephone call saying that Justin was being dismissed from the hospital and would be home later on Wednesday.

The computer given to Justin brings to about 100 the number of computers that have been refurbished and gifted by SPCS. So far, Yost said, the society has not had as many computers donated as organizers had hoped. The machines begin given away now came mostly from a semitrailer load that Larry Yost bought at a state surplus auction.

Volunteers have learned to refurbish the computers and load appropriate programs onto them.

“This is truly a wonderful program,” Mrs. Allison said.