APPLING COUNTY, Ga. -- Keith Johnson was doing what he loved. He was a school principal in Georgia, a respected coach and a dedicated father.
Some would say Keith lived a charmed life, something that changed during a two hour nap.
"I could not feel the right side from my chest down- all the way to my toes," says Johnson.
For a man always on the go this was unthinkable. Even doctors found it hard to believe.
"The doctors in the emergency room didn't believe me," Keith says. "[One doctor] said, 'Are you sure you can't feel anything?' I said no. He said, 'Do you mind if i stick you with needles?' And the next thing I know, I got pins everywhere and my legs are bleeding. [Then] he said, 'You're serious, something is wrong with you.'"
That something turned out to be "Devic's Disease", a rare disease that severely damages the nerves and is similar too Multiple Sclerosis.
The diagnosis meant Keith was in and out of intensive care. He needed a wheelchair to get around and was living a nightmare.
"I was not able to control by bowels or any part of my body," he says.
Johnson thought Devic's was going to kill him. So the Georgia elementary school principal prepared to die.
Miraculously, Johnson did get better after spending weeks at a time at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville. He received steroid therapy and underwent several plasma exchanges to rid his body of the disease.
The treatment meant immediate weight gain for Johnson. In three weeks, he gained close to 70 lbs.
"I'll take the weight" says Johnson, who is back at his school doing what he loves.
"This is what I'm born to do, this is my calling."
