Fri, Aug 29 2008
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Published July 08, 2008 12:12 am - This Independence Day was symbolic for Chris Broadwater. It was another step for the 22-year-old Joplin man in proving his independence to the doctors who said he would never walk. And if Broadwater did ever walk on his own, they said he would certainly never run. Joplin businessman defies odds, overcomes disease By Melissa Dunson
mdunson@joplinglobe.com This Independence Day was symbolic for Chris Broadwater. It was another step for the 22-year-old Joplin man in proving his independence to the doctors who said he would never walk. And if Broadwater did ever walk on his own, they said he would certainly never run. “And I can do both,” Broadwater said. Not only can he run down the street, he runs a local business, too. He and girlfriend Christina Spry, 20, both Joplin High School graduates, are 50/50 owners of the Jive in Java drive-through location at Seventh Street and St. Louis Avenue. They bought the business in April. Broadwater was born with spina bifida and a hole the size of an orange in his back that exposed his spine, nerves and muscles as part of the defect. He is also missing several vertebrae in his back because of the condition. Broadwater wore leg braces for years, attended the Cerebral Palsy Center as a child and had to re-learn how to walk at age 3 and again at 7 years old, following his spinal surgeries. “If you were to read the initial paperwork (on Broadwater), the prognosis was terrible,” said his mother, Teresa Nichols. “A lot of kids with spina bifida can never walk, or they have water on the brain. He’s a miracle, a walking miracle, standing in front of me.” Something to prove Broadwater had his struggles growing up. He wasn’t as tall as some of his friends because his spine didn’t grow at the right rate. He didn’t run as fast as some others at school. He couldn’t play contact sports. And every time he fell as a child, Nichols said she “freaked out.” But her son was smart, Nichols said, and determined. After starting at the CP Center, Broadwater has always attended regular school classes and managed a Sonic Drive-In for several years. He’s always been one to defy the odds, his mother said, especially when it meant he could prove someone wrong. “He’s quiet until you get to know him, then you realize that he’s unstoppable,” she said. “He’s able to achieve almost anything he wants to, especially if you tell him he can’t do it.” Spry describes Broadwater as a perfectionist who puts his all into everything he does. “I could tell by the kind of person he was that he’d been through a lot,” Spry said. 
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