GRAND BLANC TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Kaden Stevenson, a 10-year-old boy from Grand Blanc Township, is now the star of a new comic book.
In the pages, his alter ego, Kaden Blaze, battles a dangerous foe—the flu—with hopes of spreading awareness and saving lives.
Michele Stevenson, Kaden’s mother, said, “I am so grateful to Families Fighting Flu for helping us make his superhero dreams a reality with the comic book and his uniform, which is so cool.”
Kaden’s power? Fighting the flu.
It all began at Christmas 2022 when Michele noticed her son wasn’t feeling well.
At first, she didn’t think it was serious, but things quickly worsened.
“He started complaining about pain in his leg and saying he couldn’t walk,” Michele recalled. She took him to the emergency room in Flint.
“The ER doctor, I remember him sitting down and looking at me with this serious look on his face, saying that your son is really sick,” Michele said.
The next morning, Kaden was flown to a hospital in Grand Rapids.
Michele shared, “I found out that he was sick with influenza A, strep A, and then he has sepsis, so he’s in multi-organ failure—heart, liver, and kidney failure. They did let me know he may have to end up with amputations.”
Kaden survived but lost both legs.
While Kaden was battling the virus, a 5-year-old boy in the same hospital died from the flu.
“He told me he wanted to live for that little boy, and a lot of people also said that, you know, he was their superhero. He’s my superhero,” Michele said.
In real life and in the comic book, Kaden defeats the flu.
For Michele and Kaden, the mission is clear: to spread the message about the seriousness of the flu.
“We’ve always been about doing whatever we can do to help save lives and inspire other people,” Michele said.