Megan King was just 16 in 2005 when she jumped up in the air to catch a soccer ball during gym class and fell to the ground, damaging her right ankle and spine and tearing the muscle off both shoulder blades. The teenager spent more than a year on crutches, but instead of her symptoms subsiding, even more appeared. King’s joints weakened and her muscles began to tear. Over the years, she underwent 22 surgeries on her shoulders and shoulder blades alone, with doctors mystified as to why her body was unable to heal. It took 10 years for King to be diagnosed in 2015 with hypermobile Ehler’s-Danlos syndrome (hEDS) — a genetic disorder that stops collagen (a key joint tissue) from forming properly and leads to joint instability. A year later, King's neck became dislocated, and she was fitted with a Halo brace, a brutal contraption that screws directly into the skull to keep the neck from moving. During the process to remove the device, her skull nearly became detached from her spine, an almost always deadly condition called internal decapitation. King, now 35, said: "I threw my chair back to keep gravity from decapitating me. My neurosurgeon had to hold my skull in place with his hands. I couldn't stand. My right side was shaking uncontrollably.” She was rushed into emergency surgery, where doctors fused her skull back onto her spine. She has now had 37 surgeries and is fused from her skull down to her pelvis, meaning she can no longer shift her head up, down, left or right. The injury is fatal in over 90% of cases, as the damage disrupts nerve signals between the brain and the body, leading to paralysis around vital organs like the lungs and heart, impairing their function. That’s why it was a miracle when King regained her ability to walk and even walked a mile in 2020. “I’m still learning what my new body can do,” said King. “It’s not easy, but I’m adapting.” Her most recent accomplishment was a bowling outing. She bowled a strike on her first try, with her friends screaming and clapping in the background. That one strike turned into three that night, and she continues to surprise even her doctors.
