Kong Vang, 15, sorts through books at the KIWIN'S fundraising book sale at the Merced Mall over the weekend. Vang is the brother of Merced High School student and KIWINS member Nancy Vang who is struggling to recover from a rare medical condition. KIWIN'S is a youth group organized by the Kiwanis Club of Merced.Something terrible and life changing happened to 17-year-old Nancy Vang as she slept one August night last year.

When the promising Merced High School student and civic volunteer woke up in the morning, she discovered a severe rash on her thigh, just above the knee. And at some point, as she prepared to go to school, she noticed a spider crawling around her bed.

She went to school that morning, friends and family say, but she soon felt sick to her stomach. When she returned home, things got worse and family members rushed her to a hospital in Merced where doctors and nurses struggled to figure out exactly what was wrong.

Vang was listed in serious condition and sent to Children's Hospital in Madera where doctors determined she came into contact with some kind of flesh eating bacteria. Family members believe she may have been bitten by a venomous brown recluse spider or something similar. But medical experts to this day have not confirmed that.

KIWIN'S adviser Larry Mercando and his wife Melissa stand with Nancy Vang's brother and sister, Kong and Kia.In Madera, they performed several operations to remove muscle from her right thigh. But the growing infection became worse and a large portion of her intestines had to be removed. As she recovered from that operation, her kidneys failed.

Then her heart stopped for a brief, scary moment.

With her health declining by the day, Vang was transported to the Intensive Care Unit at UC Davis Medical Center. Her condition there was somewhat stabilized, but she had insufficient blood flow to the lower part of her right leg. Doctors said she could not recover unless the leg was removed just below the knee.

Today Vang is heavily medicated with several tubes extending from her bladder and one down her throat which prevents her from speaking. Her recovery has been slowed by infections that have damaged her kidneys.

"It's very serious for everybody involved," said Larry Mercando of the Kiwanis Club of Merced — the group that has been spearheading a campaign to help the Vang family.

Several of Vang's seven siblings are active members of KIWIN'S, the youth wing of the Kiwanis. Her older sister Jenny Vang won a $24,000 Key Club Scholarship at the 2007 KIWIN's convention and now attends college.

Nancy Vang was following in her sister's footsteps before she became ill. She was co-secretary and perhaps the most active member of the organization, Mercando said.

"Word has been sent to all the Kiwanis Club houses in California, Nevada and Hawaii," Mercando said. "We are all trying to raise money for her. We are looking at ways to get her a leg prosthesis she can use when she gets better."

Over the weekend, scores of KIWIN'S volunteers helped organize a book sale in Nancy Vang's honor at the main plaza of the Merced Mall.

"She was my first friend in school when I moved here," said book sale organizer Lily Chou. "She always looks on the bright side and believed that the impossible is the possible. She would say, "Even two parallel lines may one day meet."

Nancy Vang is part of a Hmong family that was forced out of Laos and into a Thailand refugee camp during the Vietnam War. They were able to immigrate to the United states in 1987.

Her father, Charles Vang, worked as a part-time tutor and had a small business selling goods at local flea markets. He stopped most of his work so that he could be close to his daughter at UC Davis Medical Center. He has been residing at the Kiwanis Family House in Sacramento with the help of the Kiwanis Club of Merced. His wife works midnight shifts at a local distribution center.

For those interested in donating to Nancy's cause, contact Larry Mercando at 726-3423, 617-2070 or e-mail at mercando@elite.net.