ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – Easton True of Rochester sounds like your average active 12-year-old. He spoke about his love for basketball and the great Michael Jordan.
But like Mike, how Easton competes is uniquely his own.
“His physical activity might look a little different than his younger brother, but he still excels and does his best,” Easton’s dad, Jeff True, said.
Easton also loves swimming and competing in different events with Special Olympics.
KTTC met with the True family at an adaptive triathlon event in Rochester.
“Through adaptive athletics and through all the sports that he’s involved in, through this, we’ve made so many cool friendships with these families,” Jeff said.
“He was born premature and then on day eight of life, he had a grade four brain bleed which led to hydrocephalus and some other diagnoses,” Easton’s mother, April True, said.
Easton spent the first nine-and-a-half months of his life in the hospital undergoing multiple surgeries.
Those procedures continued as he grew, including brain surgeries, eye surgeries, lumbar taps, and blood transfusions.
“So many procedures that the average person could not understand,” April said.
There have been long-term physical and social impacts, including a brace he wears on his leg.
But like in sports, Easton was not about to give up.
That’s something that makes his dad, a high school hockey coach, very proud.
“I think, as a father, when you find out you’re having your first child and it’s going to be a boy, you have these maybe unrealistic expectations of what fatherhood is going to be like. And then I dream and think that I’m going to have this little hockey player and baseball player and coach them and teach them, and then when things happened the way they did, nothing changed,” Jeff said. “It just looks different than it might have looked.”
There were lots to celebrate as Easton rounded the track at the adaptive triathlon, his celebratory meal on his mind.
“Go to the place to eat fried fish, probably,” Easton said.
It was just one strong finish of many for this Kid With Courage.
If you know a Kid With Courage Caitlin should know about, email her at [email protected].
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