BAKER COUNTY, Fla. — The Baker County community and professional athletes including a well-known NBA Hall of Famer are all showing their love and support to the family of a 12-year-old boy who is now in a wheelchair after suffering a spinal cord injury from a swimming accident in May.
Camden Rhoden is your average 12-year-old boy who has a love for the game of baseball, but in the last couple of months, his life has become anything but average.
"They told us our son was going to be a quadriplegic, that he would probably be on a ventilator the rest of his life," Camden's mother, Brooke Rhoden, told First Coast News.
Camden was involved in a swimming accident at a local RV park on May 25. He broke his C5 vertebrae and suffered a spinal cord injury.
And while Camden underwent tests and surgeries away from home, back in Baker County, family, friends and local sports teams began to rally behind the Rhoden family by posting uplifting messages and videos in a Facebook group called Cam Strong #22.
The support grew almost overnight.
Cam received uplifting messages from NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O'Neal, Atlanta Braves catcher Travis D'Arnaud, the Savannah Bananas and Cooper Hodges with the Jaguars, to name a few.
Now two months since his accident, Cam's made significant strides.
"Since that day, he has come so far," Brooke said. "He has done so many things they did not think he was going to do. He is doing amazing. He’s able to transfer himself from the bed to the chair to the couches, the chair, just different things. He’s really made a remarkable recovery so far."
As Camden embarks on his long road to recovery in the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, an enormous support system is backing him every step of the way.
"The support of our friends, our family, the strangers that are reaching out, that is 100% what is keeping us going," Brooke added. "We would not be able to be here and do the things we’re doing mentally, physically, emotionally without them. Just keep him in your thoughts and prayers and keep following along because I do believe in my heart and soul that he will walk out of here and he’s going to have an amazing testimony," she concluded.
The Shepherd Center is an Atlanta-based rehab hospital known for treating spinal cord injury and brain injury. Brooke told First Coast News Camden is the youngest patient there at this time; he'll be there until October, then will transfer back to Jacksonville.