By: Shereen Mohammad
Smohammad@kcautv.com
21-year old Taylor Chapman, from Spencer, Iowa, seems likes your healthy, average guy on the outside. But on the inside, his bones are slowly deteriorating.
Taylor suffers from a degenerative bone disease called Avascular Necrosis, also known as AVN. His condition goes back to a terrible collision with another player during a high school basketball game, his senior year.
The accident left him motionless and caused his spinal cord to swell. Doctors traced the disease back to the steroids Taylor received to treat his spinal cord injury.
"When I collided with the kid, my head went into his shoulder and kind of just crushed inside my head back and I kind of just blacked out from there," said the 21-year old.
Taylor is now back in motion.
He's a member of Morningside College's men's Cross Country team, and has been running since his freshman year of high school. Although doctors told him he wouldn't be able to run, let alone compete at meets...
His determination and motivation to get back on track, literally, only fired him up even more.
"I've had people tell me no, I can't do it, and then just not giving up was kind of a big motivation to prove people wrong," he said.
And with his positive attitude, he beat the odds last Spring when he helped lead Morningside to an indoor national championship in the 3200-meter relay.
"Just having all my friends and family there to support me at that meet and my team mates and coaches, I would say that was also a big motivation too."
For Taylor, there is hope. Although he's not on any medication, doctors say the dead bone in his knee joints are getting smaller, and he's even regenerating new bone.
If you want to come out and support Taylor and his team mates at their next meet, it will be on November 3rd, at 10 a.m. at Adams Nature Preserve in McCook Lake, South Dakota.
