![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/6a00d834525a2f69e202e860da3bac200b-250wi.jpg\" "\\"Nick")
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It\u2019s 1999. Gary Springer and his wife, Nancy, are in their son’s hospital room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nick, 14, awakens to learn he has been in a coma for six weeks. Given just a 10% chance to survive a near-fatal brush with meningococcal meningitis, Nick has made it through. But doctors had to amputate his legs through the knees and his arms at mid-forearm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gary Springer recalls the conversation, with his heavily medicated son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe said: \u2018Dad, I don\u2019t think I have any fingers.\u2019 I said: \u2018Nick, you don\u2019t. When you got sick, they had to cut them off.\u2019 He goes: \u2018I think I know about my legs, too.\u2019 And I said, \u2018Yeah, Nick, but we\u2019ve already had people in to see you. You\u2019re going to be able to walk again. You\u2019re going to be able to have new legs.\u2019 Instead of breaking down, Nick just said: \u2018OK.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
**************<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Nick Springer was more than fine. He soared. The Croton-on-Hudson native found inspiration of his own. He shunned prosthetics and mastered life in a wheelchair. He was MVP of the gold-medal-winning Team USA wheelchair rugby team at the Beijing Paralympics in 2008 and won bronze in London in 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wheelchair rugby gave him back his identity. He was an athlete again, on a team with guys who didn\u2019t treat him like he was different. He wasn\u2019t fragile. He was ferocious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was just one of the guys again,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But he was more. He was elite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I remember this so well. But he conquered his adversity. Thanks to MC for pointing me to this article. Nick Springer’s brush with meningitis cost him his legs and his lower arms. But his warrior’s heart was what drew others to him, and continues to draw others to his story. It\u2019s 1999. Gary Springer and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=264"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11105,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264\/revisions\/11105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/6a00d834525a2f69e202e860f1607a200d-250wi.jpg\" "\\"Nick")
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