Two years ago, Chase Swearingen spent much of his summer preparing for doctors to remove part of his brain.

Epileptic seizures had wreaked havoc on the Jewell teenager’s life. The surgery at Oregon Health & Science University’s Doernbecher Children’s Hospital was a success. His connection to the hospital also gave him a unique chance to give something back.

Swearingen was invited to be a guest designer for Nike. The 14-year-old’s apparel line, part of the Doernbecher Freestyle collection, goes on sale Dec. 17.

Swearingen found out in February that he was nominated by the medical staff during his stay at Doernbecher’s to participate in the Nike initiative. Since 2003, the program has raised more than $16 million for Doernbecher Children’s Hospital Foundation, which receives the proceeds from patient-created designs.

From March to June, the teen oversaw the creation of a short-sleeve shirt, baseball cap and a pair of running shoes.

“I was pretty much the leader of it, and they made it happen,” Swearingen said.

The shoes and apparel, inspired by Swearingen’s interests, all sport a blue-and-green color scheme, representing the intersection of land and water on the coast. On the back of each shoe is a patch depicting a lighthouse made from building blocks. On either side of the shirt and baseball cap are a lighthouse and a biplane, a nod to his interest in World War I.

Swearingen even incorporated part of his history as a patient into his shoes and hat. Surrounding his signature on the tongue of each shoe is a shunt, a passage used to drain liquid from around the brain. Swearingen, diagnosed at birth with hydrocephalus, has become all too familiar with the tool used to relieve the pressure in his skull.

“The shunt is on the outside of the shoe, and then the whole sock liner is the brain,” he said. “On the inside of my hat, there was also a brain.”

During an auction late last month revealing the apparel collections, Swearingen’s line went for $21,000, purchased by Nike Chief Operating Officer Eric Sprunk and his wife, Blair. In all, six patient apparel collections raised $1.2 million.

Swearingen was given a large Lego replica of his shoe design, along with a pair of his shoes signed by Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson. He was given a copy of the book “Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike” signed by Phil Knight, and a lunch date with Tinker Hatfield, original designer of the Nike Air Max Zero Swearingen had customized.

Aside from some seizures caused by dehydration and other external factors, Swearingen said his life since the surgery has markedly improved.

Now he’s waiting for the Christmas shopping season, when his apparel becomes available globally through Nike.com and retailers. “I know I have a lot of people that are going to buy my apparel,” he said.

His mother, Tami Swearingen, said the entire experience has been amazing, from the surgery that relieved her son of his seizures, to the Nike program that has helped him give back.

“The doctors have completely changed his life,” she said. “It’s so hard to thank someone for improving his quality of life. It’s great to help bring some money into the hospital.”