The difference now is that he’s one of them. Thompson, 42, is a noble of Moslem Shriners and serves on the Board of Governors at the hospital that began treating him before he was old enough to remember it.
"To sit on the board is the coolest thing,” he said. “I remember how proud I felt to walk back into that hospital with that red fez on. Words can't describe the feeling. I am beyond blessed to be able to represent Shriners Children’s.”
Born in Detroit in 1984, Thompson was diagnosed that same year with a severe case of clubfoot in his right foot, which was "completely upside down and backwards," he said, with no heel. Other hospitals in the area told his mother, Marlene, that there was little they could do and that he would never walk.
She searched for months until another member of the Detroit Police Officers’ Wives Association mentioned Shriners Children’s Chicago. That night, Thompson said, she went home and happened to see a commercial for the international healthcare system on television and felt it was a sign. Marlene called the next day, and Moslem Shriners quickly arranged his transportation. He arrived at the hospital before his first birthday.
His orthopedic care unfolded over 19 years and 16 surgeries. Surgeons cracked and rotated the bone a little at a time, "like an arm on a clock," he said, and then cast it to heal. A tendon transplanted from his thigh fixed his flat-footedness, and later procedures straightened toes that curled painfully beneath his foot.
Years later, a baseball injury revealed that his femur had slipped from its socket, and surgeons placed a rod that remains in his hip today. He credits Peter Smith, M.D., still practicing at Shriners Children's Chicago, along with the doctors who treated him as an infant, Kenneth Kuo, M.D., and Edward Millar, M.D., for exemplary treatment that gave him full function.
What Thompson remembers most is how the place made him feel: the wheeled carts the children called "banana boats," the ham and cheese sandwiches he requested every visit, the nights staff would roll his bed into a common room and play Charlotte's Web when the pain was too much. One year, a drawing he made was chosen for the hospital's Christmas card. It still hangs, framed, at his mother's house.
Shriners is so much more than just a fraternity. It's literally been my life for almost 42 years.
"The term 'comfortable' doesn't even do it justice," he said of the Shriners Children’s environment. "From the second you walk in, go up to the clinic desk, get your little sticker – everybody is just so happy. You can feel like a kid. Other places you go into are sterile, not inviting. Shriners Children’s hospitals are built to make kids feel comfortable."
The bonds he formed have lasted decades. The bus rides to Chicago started before dawn, and a woman named Betty and her husband, Ronald, operated them. He drove while she served breakfast and slipped a VHS tape into the VCR for the children to watch. Not long ago, Thompson sent Betty – now in her 90s – a box of Shriners Children's gear.
"It completely made her day, reliving those memories of her and her husband always on the bus with us, doing those trips,” he said. “It's something magical. Shriners is so much more than just a fraternity. It's literally been my life for almost 42 years."
Outside the hospital, childhood was harder. He remembers sitting poolside with a garbage bag over his cast while his brother and friends swam and played. One Halloween, recovering from surgery, he stayed home in a wheelchair while his uncle collected a pillowcase full of candy so he wouldn't miss out.
“It was difficult sometimes. It really was,” he said. “But the crazy thing is, what I learned in the hospital, I apply outside of the hospital. The notion of ‘you can do anything you set your mind to’ is true.”
Thompson points to the physical therapy process as a difficult but formative experience: “PT was the worst. I was literally learning how to walk all over again after every surgery. It was so painful. I knew, though, if I could get through that, I could get through anything.”
He went on to utilize that determination and positivity in athletics – as captain of his high school swim and track teams – and his career as a corporate trainer.
Troy and his wife, Kristen, share a smile on a truck.
Thompson had long wanted to give back, and the path came through Freemasonry. While attending a Shriners Sportsman's Raffle with the woman who is now his wife, Kristen, he met board member and Moslem Shriners Childcare Director Bob O'Brien, who walked him to the Masonic table. Thompson soon became a Master Mason and, in 2019, joined Shriners International as president of one of Moslem Shriners' largest classes within the last decade. He was later named an Imperial Patient Ambassador and served as an associate board member in Ohio, alongside mentor O'Brien, before a vacancy opened in Chicago.
"Everybody always knew that Chicago was my ‘home,’" he said.
He applied, interviewed and became a full board member within months. On the board, he said, he has learned how the hospital really runs, from the annual budget to the complex international cases that come through its doors.
"I'm literally on the frontlines of making a difference," he said. "We look at kids' cases on a one-by-one basis. I'm proud to say I have a hand in that."
He keeps small toys in his pockets for the patients he meets and is always ready to tell his story.
"I say, 'I was in a chair just like that when I was your age. I had braces on my legs just like that. Now look at me,'" he said. "That sense of hope is so incredibly important. These kids are going through enough as it is."
Thompson and Kristen recently moved to Des Moines, Iowa, for her career, but he remains a member of Moslem. When they were first visiting the city to consider it as a potential new home, Thompson reached out to the local Shrine chapter, Za-Ga-Zig. They rolled out the welcome wagon, with Potentate Scott Adams personally giving the couple a three-hour tour of the area.
“If he hadn't done that, we probably would not be here,” he said. “Scott said, ‘This is a guy who's new – let me extend my hand, reach out and, if there's anything he needs, I'm going to be there.’ That interaction, with him driving us around and making us feel so welcome, was the tipping point."
Since relocating to Des Moines, Thompson has been participating in Za-Ga-Zig activities regularly and is now an associate member of the chapter.
Plus, he’s happy to share another new development in his life: He just became a territory sales manager for a company that manufactures power wheelchairs, mobility scooters, stair lifts and other patient aids.
“I know what it's like to sit in a wheelchair all day,” he said. “So, to be able to give a person mobility and independence is full circle.”
Indeed, “full circle” seems to be a recurring theme for Thompson’s journey – from patient to Shriner and hospital board member – and it’s something he wants to share with every child he meets at Shriners Children’s.
“I want to show them the final result of Shriners Children’s,” he said. “Now, I'm not only walking and having an amazing life, but I'm also a board member at this very hospital. It's a story that needs to be told. How the planets aligned has been amazing. I'm so fortunate.”
