Released December 23, 2008
BOZEMAN, Mont. -- Adrian Carroll has the gift of music. Even his last name reflects that bent. But the Montana State University sophomore who plays everything from clarinet to tuba says the gift he appreciates even more is life.
Carroll spent six weeks on a respirator just after he was born. A few years later, he was diagnosed with a heart murmur and said he had to struggle every day to summon the energy to get out of bed. Earlier this year, he underwent open heart surgery and stayed unconscious so long that his mom was afraid he wouldn't wake up.
But life is finally what he hoped it would be, the Bozeman resident said recently. He now has five times the energy he used to have, Carroll said. Months before Christmas, he wore a Santa hat to work and sang Christmas carols while preparing sandwiches. During the last home football game of the year, he literally ran circles around other members of the Spirit of the West marching band and danced with the MSU Cat Dancers.
"He definitely added a lot of energy to the marching band," said Zane Douglass, director of bands. "He always had a smile on his face."
Carroll said, "You only live once. You have to enjoy it. In my case, you really appreciate life because you have been through so much. For 23 years, I was happy to wake up alive and breathing. Waking up was an accomplishment for me."
Carroll's mother, Martha Carroll-Talley from Fishtail, said her son weighed almost 11 pounds at birth, but he had to spend six weeks in a respirator because his umbilical cord was pinched between his shoulder and her pelvis. Then, when he was eight years old, he ran into her bedroom one night crying, "Mama, Mama, I'm having a heart attack."
She thought at first that he was having a nightmare, but he convinced her otherwise, Carroll-Talley said. Doctors treated him, but over the next several years, he had severe heart palpitations when he laid down. He'd wake up at night, panic-stricken because he couldn't breathe. At times, he was going to the hospital at least once a week.
"I strived to be normal," Carroll said. "I had to work really hard to have energy."
Carroll-Talley said her son started playing musical instruments when he was about three years old. He later took up tennis. But he did those things in spite of his health, and it didn't help that he stopped taking his medication after moving to California in May 2007, she said. Carroll graduated from the Los Angeles Recording School in April 2008 and worked on audio crews in Hollywood. By the time he returned to Montana to get away from the crime and pursue a career that offered a steady paycheck, his heart had enlarged 23 percent.
"It got pretty bad," Carroll-Talley said.
Carroll said he couldn't sleep early last summer because of the heart palpitations. And one evening he was so exhausted that he went to the emergency room at Bozeman Deaconess Hospital. The next day, he was flown to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., where doctors repaired one heart valve and put an implant in another.
Now back at MSU, Carroll has enough energy to play in seven bands. Willing to play whatever the director needs, he has played the mellophone in marching band, tuba in pep band, e-flat clarinet and contra-clarinet in MSU Wind Symphony, e-flat clarinet and bass clarinet in the MSU Symphony, French horn in the Horn Ensemble, a variety of clarinets in Clarinet Ensemble, and whatever the director wants in University Band. So far, Carroll said he can play 34 instruments.
"You just tap him for whatever you need," said Kim Eggemeyer, administrative associate in the music department. "He's usually up to the task."
He was definitely up to the task when he joined the Cat Dancers during one of their sideline performances, said Alice Braun, Spirit Squad coach. The Cat Dancers are good enough to compete in nationals at the end of March, but Carroll asked if he could perform with them in Bozeman. After learning a portion of their routine, he surprised the crowd by joining them.
"The crowd absolutely loved it," Braun said. "They thought it was fun and funny. He's a real crowd pleaser."
Carroll, who said his two biggest passions are living life and playing music, said his valve implant is supposed to last for 20 years. By that time, he expects technology will have advanced enough for a new solution to his heart problems.
In the meantime, he's enjoying the life he has and the music he creates.
"I have been through a lot," he said. "I guess I appreciate the small things in life that everyone takes for granted -- just being alive in the morning."
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http://www.montana.edu/cpa/news/nwview.php?article=6662
Contact: Evelyn Boswell, (406) 994-5135 or evelynb@montana.edu
