He stands 5 feet 7 inches tall, but Howard Nolan looks as if he should be taller.

Something isn't normal.

To Nolan, normal means near-constant pain in his feet, knees, back and arms. His eyesight isn't great. His short-term memory is not what it should be. He battles exercise-induced asthma. The skin on his legs and arms looks odd.

And then you learn his story.

Nolan, a 19-year-old high school senior, has been hospitalized so many times that his adoptive mother estimates that he has spent only eight years attending school.

He used to be Ernest Howard Ross, an African-American from the inner city who spent much of his first seven years enduring almost unimaginable physical and emotional abuse.

Today, he's Howard Gary Nolan, youngest of three children in a white Shorewood family attending Catholic school at Whitefish Bay Dominican.

He's a popular athlete, a friendly classmate, a beloved family member, a dedicated volunteer. A happy kid.

There is little that is normal about Howard Nolan. There is plenty about Howard Nolan that is amazing.

"He's got the heart of a lion," said his adoptive mother, Meg Nolan. "I see kids struggling with a hundredth of the issues Howard has had in his life. He just keeps plowing ahead, moving forward.

"If the rest of us had to get around with the kind of body Howard has, I don't think many of us would even be walking."

Ernest Ross didn't see much love in his early years. His birth mother hid him from authorities and never let him attend school, instead keeping him at home to watch over his younger siblings. His father was in a Texas prison.

Once, when he was 7, the boy made an innocent mistake that would change his life forever.

"I ran a tub of water for my little sister, and I didn't realize I never turned the cold water on," Howard said. "The water was really hot, way too hot."

When one of the younger children yelled in pain and wouldn't enter the tub, their mother came in and noticed how hot the water was.

"She asked, 'Would you take a bath in this water?' And she made me stick my foot in," Nolan said. "I pulled it out because it hurt, and then she put me in the bathtub and held me in there. And I had to go to the hospital."

He suffered burns over 86% of his body. In some areas, his skin melted completely away.

"The officer on the scene said it was the worst crime he had ever seen," Meg Nolan said. "It was also the largest burn (by percentage of skin surface) that Children's Hospital has ever seen on a person who lived."

Ernest Ross spent more than 11 months in the hospital, undergoing countless operations and procedures, breathing with the help of a ventilator and surviving thanks to a feeding tube and a morphine drip.

"Once, they decided they would have to amputate his feet," Meg Nolan said, "but when the doctors made their initial incision, they saw a little bit of blood flow and something told them to wait."

Meg Nolan declined to name Howard's birth mother, saying she went to prison and served less than three years of her five-year sentence.

"She's still here, still around," she said, adding that the woman's four other children live with a different family member.

When officials began to seek a foster family for the boy, Gary (a Shorewood mail carrier) and Meg Nolan were singled out because they knew one of the hospital's advocacy workers. "We mentioned we'd be willing to help one day, but we never thought we'd get called on to do it," Meg Nolan said.

The early days weren't easy. Constant bandage changes, daily physical therapy trips, more surgical procedures. They retooled their house with padding on the floors and handles on the walls so Howard could meet his first goal: to walk without crutches.

"We had 13 different doctors tell us they were sure Howard would never be able to walk," Meg Nolan said.

On top of that, they had to teach the 8-year-old boy how to read because he had never spent a day in school and his spoken vocabulary was limited to a few dozen words.

Still, it wasn't long before the Nolans were in court, adopting the youngster and letting him choose his new name. "My older children (Haley and Ryan) insisted that Howard stay with us," Meg Nolan said. "They were always helping."

The first time Howard stood without crutches was when he was selected to hike a football to Brett Favre during a hospital function at the Bradley Center.

Howard loved to watch children play in the park next to the family home.

"Once he was able to walk, his two goals for the year were to learn to read and to be able to climb up the slide in the park," Meg Nolan said.

Eventually, Howard was enrolled in grade school for the first time. He immediately acclimated himself to the surroundings despite issues with pain, mobility, eyesight and memory, all related to his burns.

"Sometimes it seems like it's too much, but you just kind of have to let it go and not worry about it," he said. "You just focus on what you're working on right now."

That's also when he discovered sports, joining basketball and soccer programs and playing a little youth baseball.

"Any chance I had to toss the ball around, I enjoyed it. I was always playing," Howard said.

Nolan has held his own as an athlete, but what he really loved was the individual challenge and the group camaraderie fostered by athletics.

"He's a fun kid to have around," Dominican coach and athletic director Paul Wollersheim said. "He's not big and strong enough to be a major contributor, but he's a good enough player that he does just fine in practice and when he does get in games."

Howard said: "I enjoy being around the kids, your friends. If you're having a rough day, going to practice and hanging out with the guys takes the stress off your mind a little bit. Coach is pretty fun, too."

Nolan started high school as a volleyball player, though he spent the fall of his junior year on Dominican's football team. He returned to volleyball last fall, starting at setter for the Whitefish Bay/Dominican cooperative team that advanced to WIAA sectionals.

Now he's in his second year on the top-ranked Dominican boys basketball team, though he has yet to score for the 7-2 Knights.

"I'm waiting for my chance," he said. "We've been in some tough games."

Meg Nolan said: "It's amazing what sports can do for a kid. From when he was little, shooting hoops with his little crutches, to what he's doing today, sports has played a large role in his progress."

Wollersheim added: "It has not been easy for Howard, both socially and academically, but he's on course to graduate and is as well-liked as any other student in school. He always works hard in practice, there's always a smile on his face, and even though I'm sure some of our stretching and drills are painful for him, never once has he let on."

Meanwhile, Howard spends his free time volunteering for Children's Hospital. He has been in the hospital's fund-raising ads, counsels patients and helps with hospital chores. He also has made appearances for the Miracle Network and the Milwaukee Child Abuse Prevention Fund.

He still has the nature of a high school kid, though.

"He once was such a sweet little guy, and he's such a teenager now," Meg Nolan said with a laugh. "He wants his ears pierced, and he wants a tattoo of a lion on the one patch (of skin) on his shoulder that's not burned."

He is considering attending the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, UW-Oshkosh or UW-Whitewater.

"I want to study physical education. I was thinking about criminal justice, but not really anymore," he said.

Whatever Howard decides to do, his family says the world better watch out.

"Howard has been a 24/7 job in a lot of ways, but it's all been worth it," Meg Nolan said. "We can't wait to see what this kid accomplishes in his life because whatever it is, it's going to affect a lot of people."