Jeff Seidel

Detroit Free Press Columnist

As a child, Detroit Tigers pitcher Matt Boyd almost died several times.

He was hospitalized six times at Seattle Children’s Hospital due to severe asthma.

“Children’s Hospital saved my life when I was younger,” he said. “I spent a lot of time there.”

On Monday, a day before his latest start, Boyd and his wife, Ashley, visited Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit, as a way to give back. But this was more than an athlete making a PR appearance.

This was a wonderful example of a sick kid who fought, literally, for every breath, and that kid kept fighting and got better and grew up and came out the other side, becoming a professional athlete. Boyd is a guy who represents hope and possibility to all of those children.

Boyd understands what those kids are going through. How every one of them has an amazing story. You want to talk about a hero? Go meet one of those kids fighting for his or her life, as the families deal with unimaginable stress. But still, amid the nightmare, the whole place can turn into something special — a large, extended family.

While visiting kids struggling with asthma, somebody told Boyd about Karai Moore, a 12-year-old from Detroit, who is a huge Tigers fan.

During the first week of August, Karai played in an all-star baseball game at the Eagle Sports Club in Detroit. A week later, he was diagnosed with a flesh-eating bacteria. In mid-August, his left leg was amputated above the knee. And on Monday, doctors had to perform an operation to clean out the wound.

Karai was still groggy from the anesthesia when Boyd and his wife entered the room.

“He was sleepy,” said Ashley Boyd. “His eyes were half open. They said, ‘We have Matt Boyd here. He plays for the Tigers.’

“And his eyes lit up and got wide. He was like, ‘What? Really.’ ”

“Who is your favorite player from the Tigers?” Matt Boyd asked.

“Miguel Cabrera,” Karai responded bluntly, as an honest, heavily medicated 12-year-old will do.

“It was a good answer,” Ashley Boyd said with a smile. “Clearly, he’s been through a lot. And he still has a long road. But he had the best attitude.”

‘Keeping it positive’

It’s frightening how everything can flip in a blink.

A week after ending his baseball season, Karai was acting strange. His leg hurt and swelled up. Here was a three-sport athlete — the quarterback on the flag football team, the point guard on the basketball team and the second baseman on the baseball team — and he couldn’t walk.

Charmaine Norman took her son to the hospital.

About an hour after arriving, Karai was rushed into surgery. He had necrotizing fasciitis, a rare infection eating away his body.

“I was terrified,” Norman said. “I had never heard of this.”

Karai went through a series of operations and procedures.

“They don’t know what caused it,” said his father, Dakarai Moore of Detroit. “It’s real hard but I couldn’t be mad at anybody. This is so rare. It came out of nowhere.”

The disease spread to his bone and his life was in danger. The only option was to amputate his left leg above the knee.

“We told him why we had to do what we had to do,” Norman said. “It was either his leg versus his life. We love him. It’s what we had to do to save him. We didn’t do this to hurt you or anything. We asked if he understands and he said yes.”

“It was life over limb,” Dakarai Moore said. “He understood it. I told him, ‘Look, you were real sick when you came to this hospital. They said you weren’t going to make it.’ ”

Karai has been visited by two people who have had a limb amputated.

“He asks questions,” Norman said. “They were telling him, you can still continue living life. He can continue to do whatever he wants. We tell him that every day, keeping it positive.”

Karai has never felt sorry for himself. “No, no,” Dakarai Moore said. “We don’t preach that. He can’t see no chinks in the armor. Everybody has to be strong around him. It’s all positive. Nothing negative can even come around. None of that.”

Norman has not seen her son cry since he arrived in the hospital.

“Me and his dad were broke up,” Norman said. “But he was fighting through it. He’s still a kid. He might have his moments. I tell him, it’s OK if you feel like you want to be mad, you can do that. Don’t hold nothing in. Just let it out. But he’s awesome. He’s an amazing kid.”

It is unclear how much longer he will be in the hospital. Eventually, they will work to get him a prosthetic leg.

“Now, our No. 1 focus is him getting a skin graft over the wound,” Norman said.

A Go Fund Me account was set up to help pay for expenses. And they have made up T-shirts: “#Karai Strong” to raise awareness about the disease.

“Karai Strong, that means something,” Dakarai Moore said. “This kid is small in stature, but his heart is so big. I can’t even describe it.”

They gave one of the T-shirts to Boyd.

On Tuesday night, Boyd wore it under his uniform while pitching in Comerica Park.

Karai sat in his hospital room, watching the game on television. He spotted the black shirt under the Tigers’ jersey.

“I felt happy,” he said. “I felt good when he was wearing it.”

After the game, Boyd was disappointed after suffering the loss but he was still wearing that shirt, standing by his locker, as he talked to the media.

“It was an honor to meet Karai,” Boyd said. “He was so optimistic. He had a smile on his face, despite coming out of surgery. I just want to let him know we are praying for him.”

“He’s getting better day by day,” Dakarai Moore said.

“It was a nightmare when we came in,” Norman said, “and now it’s a blessing from God that he’s still here.”

Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @seideljeff. To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel/. Download our Tigers Xtra app for free on Apple and Android devices!