Florida A&M University student Malcolm Parkinson’s recovery has shown much progress after he suffered from an aneurysm and went into a coma in the spring of 2006.
Parkinson collapsed in front of the FAMU cafeteria two years ago and was rushed to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. He was put into a medically induced coma.
“He is doing good and is walking… he is getting stronger,” said Parkinson’s mother, Melissa Jackson.
Parkinson, also known as ” DJ Big Shot,” was also a member of the on-campus entertainment organization called “The Embassy.”
Anthony “DJ Clean” McLean, 20, a third-year business administration student from Washington, D.C., said he is happy Parkinson is doing better, but at the same time said he is sad.
“My feelings are kind of mixed; I am happy that he is still here and that I can still talk to him,” McLean said. “I try to keep my hopes up that he can recover. I feel sad at the fact that he is still sick and that it happened. I feel bad that he is not around me the way he used to be.”
Along with Parkinson getting better, McLean said Parkinson has gotten a lot of support.
“People who know Malcolm and had classes with him always ask about him,” McLean said.
On the other hand McLean wants people in his age group to understand not to take life for granted.
“This was bound to happen to him,” he said. “People our age should get their checkups. We do not think these kinds of things can happen. We sometimes think that only older people can have these problems.
We need to eat healthier, work and exercise, and be more active, and do not take our life and age for granted.”
McLean said Parkinson’s illness has helped him grow.
“It has made me stronger and it has helped me to think about it,” he said. “I use his situation to make me stronger. I try to take his traits such as his business sense. I also use his drive to motivate me and to keep on going and achieving the best in life.
Though McLean is happy that Parkinson is doing well, he still thinks the hospital could have done a better job taking care of him when he was taken to the hospital two years ago.
McLean said he believes Big Shot survived by the grace of God when he was at the Tallahassee hospital.
“Tallahassee hospital tried to say that Malcolm was on drugs,” McLean said. “They did not know what they were doing. The doctor in D.C. said that drugs would leave your body in six hours. They left Malcolm sitting there without doing anything for 36 hours and without operating on him.
“Malcolm recovered on his own until he got to a hospital outside of Tallahassee. Malcolm is that strong of a person. The average person has a very high percentage of dying when getting an aneurysm, and he did his best to stay alive in 36 hours,” McLean continued.