As a child, Nick Springer dreamed of playing for the New York Rangers. He wanted to win a Stanley Cup, raise the trophy over his head and know he was at the top of his game.
In 1999, nine years after he started playing hockey at age 5, however, Springer’s NHL dreams vanished. While at summer camp in western Massachusetts, Springer was rushed to the hospital for an illness doctors diagnosed as meningococcal meningitis.
After two months in a coma and four amputations — two from his feet to his knees and two from his hands to his elbows — Springer figured he would never play sports again.