Just as baseball season was getting underway, rookie player Riley Reimer injured his ankle, and sadly, has been sidelined for spring camp.
What’s more, the Coquitlam Little League Player had to be taken to Eagle Ridge Hospital to have a doctor look at his injury.
Surprisingly, his mom, Nancy, wasn’t that upset.
“It’s the only time he sat in emergency for something that was 8-year-old-boy related,” she says with relief.
The Reimer family has been through some tough times and the baseball mishap a few weeks ago was the least of their worries.
Riley has been diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease, Neuromyelitis optic or NMO, in which the body’s own immune system attacks the optic nerves and spinal chord.
Two years ago, he was almost completely paralyzed from the neck down.
According to his mom, Riley dropped a glass in the bedroom one morning, and couldn’t speak. He was drooling and could only smile on one side of his face. It looked like a stroke, it turned out to be NMO.