Waiting game

Ex-Southern Miss star Nix prepares for kidney transplant

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) -- Former Southern Mississippi tailback Derrick Nix spends his days lifting weights and playing basketball, as most football players do during the offseason.

With bulging biceps and rippling abs, the 23-year-old looks more like a man preparing for NFL minicamp than kidney transplant surgery.

"If you see him, he looks like he can line up and play for somebody this fall, actually this week," said Southern Miss assistant coach Tyrone Nix, Derrick's older brother and workout partner. "I wish we had him back."

An ordeal that began for Derrick Nix in 2000 with a simple ankle sprain reaches a culmination of sorts Friday when he receives a kidney from his oldest brother, Marcus, in a Birmingham, Ala., hospital.

Nix won't play football again but if the new organ takes, he could still live a long life.

"We're very cheerful, looking forward to getting it over with and putting it behind us," Nix's father, Preston, said recently from his home in Attalla, Ala.

Derrick Nix has undergone dialysis treatment since December. How he got to this point could be decided in the courts.

He has filed a lawsuit against the makers of anti-inflammatory drugs Vioxx and Celebrex, which he claims caused a condition called focal segmental sclerosis. The disease prevents the kidneys from properly filtering waste from the blood.

Nix is seeking compensation for the loss of an NFL career.

Representatives for Pfizer, which makes Celebrex, and Merck, which makes Vioxx, said the companies stand behind the safety of their products.

Nix declined numerous requests to be interviewed for this story. His attorney, William Couch, did not return several messages left at his office.

Nix is the only player in Southern Miss history to run for more than 1,000 yards in his first two seasons. But life changed for the 225-pounder four games into his junior season, when he twisted an ankle against Memphis.

Nix was prescribed anti-inflammatory drugs to treat the sprain.

His doctors alleged the drugs caused a condition called membranous glomerulonephritis, a kidney disease that causes a drastic loss of proteins. Symptoms include high blood pressure and fluid retention.

Nix put on 50 pounds and was constantly fatigued.

He was put on medication and sat out the rest of the 2000 season. A slow recovery forced him to take a medical redshirt in 2001.

He was cleared to play in 2002 and made a remarkable return, averaging 158 yards rushing in his first three games.

But there were troubling signs. The most obvious was when he vomited on the field against Illinois after scoring a touchdown.

"You didn't know whether it was medication he was on. You didn't know whether it was the layoff, getting his endurance back," Golden Eagles coach Jeff Bower said. "I knew he didn't have the same endurance that he had before."

Still, he missed only one game and ran for 1,194 yards. But tests after the season revealed his condition had worsened.

Dr. Jon Thornton, a nephrologist who has been treating Nix, declined an interview request. He said through a spokeswoman that Nix's attorney had requested he not speak publicly about the athlete.

Dr. Michael Flesner, director of nephrology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, said it is common to see patients with kidney ailments that can be traced back to Vioxx and Celebrex.

Flesner, who has never treated Nix, said people with healthy kidneys can safely and effectively take Celebrex and Vioxx. For patients with pre-existing kidney conditions, the drugs can do damage.

"People think they're like candy and they're not. They're like kidney poison," Flesner said.

The transplant will cost about $150,000. Insurance carried by Nix's father is covering most of his medical expenses. And he's still covered under an insurance policy at Southern Miss.

The school also set up a student-athlete medical fund to help Nix with expenses down the road. Nearly $200,000 has been raised.

By all accounts, Nix has remained upbeat throughout the ordeal, expressing neither bitterness nor regrets.

"He's tougher than I ever thought he would be," Tyrone Nix said. "His determination is bigger than mine would ever be. If my boy were to grow up to be like him, I'd be the happiest person in the world."

 

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