Student hospitalized for meningitis; antibiotic clinic
being held on-campus today
By Jonathan Williams, Editor-in-Chief, Linfield Review
student newspaper, April 13, 2016
A junior Linfield student is
believed to have contracted meningitis, according to friends and parents of the
student.
Cody Oden, ’17, is being treated at
the intensive care unit at Oregon Health and Science University for spinal
meningitis, according to his mother, Teresa Oden, who posted on her son’s
Facebook about it.
Riley Rediger, ’17, who is a friend
of Oden’s, said that Oden became ill on Sunday and had a bad headache.
Oden is a junior economics and
education double major who is also on the football team.
He is a 2013 graduate of West Salem
High School in Salem, Oregon.
An on-campus antibiotic clinic is
being held today from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the upper gym of the HHPA, according
to Patty Haddeland, director of the student health and wellness center.
Anyone who is experiencing symptoms
of nausea, vomiting, headache or fever are being asked to seek immediate
medical attention from the student health center.
Rediger posted on Instagram to “keep
@og_oden (Oden) in your prayers… he’s up at OHSU batting a meningitis bug… lord
knows he’s gonna beat it and be back in no time.”
This story will be updated as more
information becomes available.
…………….
Player took ill at conclusion of spring practice
By Robert Husseman, Sports Editor McMinnville
News-Register/N-R, April 14, 2016
With no opponents on the horizon,
spring football practice can awaken a different form of competition — the
player against himself.
That was the case this year for
Linfield junior Cody Oden, a 5-foot-10 wide receiver from West Salem, and he
felt good about his showing.
“I put on a solid 10 pounds over
break, bumping up to 180 pounds, and still maintained my speed for the most
part,” he told the News-Register by text message from the intensive care unit
at the Oregon Health & Sciences University in Portland. That, he said, “was
something I really needed to do to help me with my blocking.”
But over the weekend after Friday’s
spring drills wrapup, Oden became ill during a visit to his Salem home. He
struggled to fall asleep, began vomiting and started experiencing pain each
time he drew a breath.
Upon returning to campus Monday, he
checked into the emergency room at the Willamette Valley Medical Center in
McMinnville. Suspecting meningitis, a contagious and potentially fatal disease,
doctors there had him airlifted to the Oregon Health and Science University in
Portland.
Linfield head football coach Joseph
Smith confirmed to the News-Register that students and staff “identified as a
risk” were screened for meningitis and administered an antibiotic. He did not
specify the number of players or staff members who were screened.
“I think it’s a little bit of a
learning experience in terms of, obviously, for the state and for the town and
for the county in terms of how to handle something of this magnitude with that
many people,” Smith said. “Everything seems to be turning out okay. Think this
particular situation is moving forward well.”
Smith declined to comment on Oden or
other specific players.
Oden told the News-Register that
members of the football team have been venturing to Portland to wish him well.
He was able to watch the Los Angeles
Lakers’ 101-96 victory over the Utah Jazz Wednesday night on ESPN2, he said,
with Lakers star Kobe Bryant scoring 60 points in the final game of his 20-year
career. “Not a Laker fan specifically, but I love Kobe!” he texted.
Oden played only a small part in the
Wildcats’ 2015 football season, which included a seventh consecutive Northwest
Conference championship and a trip to the NCAA Division III semifinals. He
appeared in three games, catching one pass for three yards and returning four
punts for 22 total yards.
It was a testament to his endurance
that he even saw the field in 2015, though.
Oden had a successful career at West
Salem High School, earning all-Class 6A Central Valley Conference first-team
honors as a senior. After graduation, he played in the 2013 Les Schwab Bowl
All-Star game in June.
But the next month – just one week
before Oden was to begin his college football career at Linfield – his father,
Robert “Bob” Oden, died of lung cancer. So Cody didn’t suit up for the Wildcats
that year after all.
Finally getting to suit up with the
Wildcats last fall was “beyond surreal” for Oden, a first-generation college
student.
But he said, “It was a little weird,
just ‘cause I wasn’t in great shape and didn’t quite have that competitive edge
back yet. Now after having a season under my belt, and a full off season, I
really feel like I’m ready to take a big step forward this year.”
