Former NBA Star in Fight for Life with Stevens Johnson Syndrome

May 28, 2010, 12:00PM. By Gordon Gibb

Dulles, VAAny serious fan of basketball will know the name Manute Bol, the 7'7" gentle giant from Sudan who played for several teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and holds the distinction of being the only player in the league to block more shots than points scored. Hardly surprising, due to his towering height. A fierce competitor on the court, Bol is currently in the fight of his life while battling a kidney ailment and Stevens Johnson Syndrome (SJS).

A dedicated activist and humanitarian since retiring form the NBA, Bol was returning to the US from his native Sudan after several months helping to build a new Sudanese school and other duties when he took ill, according to longtime friend and associate Tom Pritchard. Bol had flown into Dulles and spent the night prior to a scheduled flight the next day to Kansas, where his family is located. Bol's wife gave birth while Bol was in Sudan, and he was eagerly travelling home to meet his daughter for the first time.

Instead, he was rushed to the hospital in Northern Virginia, where he remains. According to the Washington Post, Bol had undergone three rounds of dialysis and is "at great risk," Pritchard said in a statement. "He's in a bad way."

The emergence of Stevens Johnson Syndrome may necessitate a move to the burn unit—a common transfer for patients with SJS.

Stevens Johnson Syndrome is a rare condition often triggered by medication. SJS rash, blisters and painful lesions can spread and evolve to result in entire swaths of dermis (skin) sloughing off the body. The condition is similar in presentation to a burn—thus the oft-taken decision to treat SJS patients in the burn unit of a hospital.

Bol, who is 47, had been working on the school project in Sudan, but agreed to stay longer to assist with the Sudanese elections in the spring. It is not known, so far, what might have triggered his SJS, or if the Stevens Johnson Syndrome and his kidney issue are somehow related. The Washington Post reported through Pritchard that Bol was on morphine and in intense pain, but is able to communicate and appeared to be stabilizing.

"He's pleased that he accomplished what he was so determined to do in Sudan," Prichard said. "He was fighting with every bit of his strength to try to keep Southern Sudan on course towards a referendum in January of next year. ... It put him right on the edge of survival, and he made it."

Now, Bol is battling to just survive. Stevens Johnson Syndrome has proved fatal in some patients.