From the time he was a small boy, Isaac Kolstad has been driven to do whatever it takes to accomplish what he wanted. Today, nearly 10 years after an event that nearly killed him, that determination is stronger than ever.
“I would say his athletic experience helps with that because he’s always been a competitor,” said his father, Blaine. It’s just his Type A personality, his mother, Teresa, added.
“You know, in those situations a lot of people that are injured, it’s hard to get them to get therapy every day,” Blaine said. “But (for) Isaac, it was just like a workout. He wanted to go. And every day he went.”
It was that sort of personal drive that made him a popular student at Mankato East High School and carried through to his football career at Minnesota State University. And it’s what led to a community campaign, #22strong, that lifted him and his family through his tortuous rehabilitation process.
Kolstad, 34, was seriously hurt during a downtown altercation in May 2014 that resulted in a traumatic brain injury. Assailants Phillip Nelson and Trevor Shelley later pleaded guilty to assault charges and two bars were held partially liable for serving alcohol to them.
When discussing his recovery a decade later, none of this was mentioned by Kolstad or his parents. As with the physical recuperation, their focus and energies were on him getting better.
Isaac works for Osprey Storage, assisting customers at the former Arnold’s location in North Mankato and Storage Lounge in Mankato. He enjoys working with people, he said, and spending as much time as possible with his daughters, Haidyn, 13, and Malia, 9. He and their mother, Molly, separated in 2016 and have divorced.
He is able to drive — one of many actions that doctors thought he never would do again — no longer needing to get rides from others to attend his girls’ athletic events, go on bike rides and attend community events.
And there is always that smile.
“I enjoy talking to people,” he said, so he encourages folks who see him in the community to say hi. During recovery, he kept his hair cut short to avoid infection around the locations of his multiple surgeries. Today, he keeps his hair short, exposing surgical scars, and his barber often cuts designs in his hair.
In a way, the scars are badges of honor, sharing with the world a reminder of what can be overcome through perseverance and dedication.
Even if people don’t know his story, the scars are a conversation starter, he said. Kolstad has spoken to the Minnesota State football team and others, and he said writing a book may be in his future.
In many ways for his parents, that book already has been written. It’s the success story of a Black baby given up for adoption to a white couple who was having challenges conceiving on their own.
“We chose the path of just not trying anything (to get pregnant) because, I don’t know, in my personal opinion it was kind of like playing God,” Teresa said. “I thought, ‘You know, there’s a reason that we aren’t getting pregnant.’”
Working with Catholic Charities, Isaac’s parents chose Teresa and Blaine to adopt their son at 9 weeks old. As sometimes happens, they became pregnant on their own a few years later, with Abraham and, later, with Isaac’s sister, Rebekah.
Blaine and Teresa remember the night in May 2014 when they received the early-morning call telling them Isaac had been hurt. From the start, doctors such as Dr. Dominic Michael Canella and Dr. Manish Sharma were honest, telling the family during days of little or no brain activity that he had less than a 3% chance of survival. Even if he did survive, they said, he would likely live with severe disabilities.
From the start, they chose to have Isaac treated in Mankato, knowing he would be close to family for what they saw as his imminent death. They started a 24-hour-a-day presence at the hospital, where they were often joined by family and friends.
Teresa chose hope, taking the doctor’s stance that if they could provide for him in Mankato everything they could in Rochester, why not keep him here. Blaine chose keeping him near family. Isaac’s wife at the time, Molly, a nurse, likely understood more about his chances of survival, Teresa said.
“I think all three of us came to the same conclusion to keep him here, but for very different reasons,” she said. “We all came to that decision.”
Through 17 days the results of brain scans were the same, they said. No activity. At meetings with the medical team, the picture continued to be bleak.
But that’s not how his mother felt.
“I just remember, I said, ‘Just stop because this is not what is going to be. You don’t know him.’ You know, we had to search the United States to find this baby. And God brought him to us. And no one’s going to take him away,” is how Teresa responded.
At this point, they said, they felt God was in charge, and they were going to live with whatever happened.
“The neurosurgeons told us that it will not get any better. It’s not going to correct itself,” Blaine said. “And then, like day 17, they did another scan and the definition (between gray and white matter) started to come back. ‘Wow,’ they said. ‘We don’t see that. Ever.’”
Through a video (found at youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=7mXOk3NOvYo) people can see the process, literally step by step at times, of Isaac’s miraculous recovery. It goes through his rehab work at Mankato, Rochester, Bethesda, Maryland, Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Institute and beyond.
The Kolstads say they still see the occasional faded #22strong bumper sticker (and they still have some, should anyone want their own), and Isaac gets stopped and asked, “Aren’t you that guy?”
They have a list a mile long of people they thank: the doctors, nurses and therapists at Mayo, Bethesda and Courage Kenny who assisted along the way; chiropractors and cross-body therapists who helped Isaac’s body reconnect and compensate for his injuries; friends and family who brought food to the hospital or spent time there and shared a meal while they held vigil; Mayo outpatient therapists and MSU speech clinicians; and others too numerous to mention.
At the beginning of retelling their son’s journey of recovery, Teresa spoke of what they always told their kids while growing up: “There’s thousands of mistakes that you can make, and you made this one. So, don’t make this mistake again because if you make it again, then you haven’t learned anything from it.”
His injury was not a mistake, but an event that he chose to learn from. Others will recognize it by the physical scars he carries, and his choice to respond with positivity.
“Scars. I read something that scars are proof that you’re stronger than whatever tried to hurt you. You know in his case, obviously it could have been a whole lot different, he would have been a whole lot different. But, yeah, he is very positive,” Teresa said.