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Logan moved into his dormitory Friday morning and was surrounded by family to help with his transition.
Hundreds of shotgun pellets still reside in Cole’s back and chest and the lead level in blood reads 29, seven times the normal range.
The pellets are leaking into his blood stream but there are not many options for removing them safely, according to Cole.
“Taking the pellets out wouldn’t be worth it for the damage it would cause,” Cole said. “It gets really complicated because some are located around my spine and you don’t know which pellets are contaminating the most. They don’t know a way to fix it.”
“The scary thing is that most of the time when people have lead exposure, they remove the exposure, but with Logan they can’t do anything,” said his mother, Julie Cole, a 2001 Cedarville University alumna.
Kidney problems, high blood pressure, potential neurological and reproductive problems are the risks.
“They would rather deal with those issues that he may have at some point than try to get the pellets out,” Julie Cole said.
Cole credits his christian faith with being able to handle the situation and respond with love and kindness.
Additionally, Cole is staying focused on typical freshman decisions even though his future health may be in question. He is considering history and computer science as his majors but also has given thought to information technology. Cole expressed interest in the latter because of his desire to help his family business ColePak Inc., which makes plastic packing materials for shipping needs.
Cole’s mother and father went to Cedarville and his sister Leah is currently a student as well.
Located in southwest Ohio, Cedarville University was founded in 1887 and is an accredited, Baptist institution with an enrollment of 3,963 undergraduate, graduate and online students in more than 150 areas of study. For more information about the university, visit www.cedarville.edu.
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