CdM’s Keddington defies odds

In February of 2008, Sarah Keddington went under.

For nearly six hours, the Corona del Mar High senior lay on a hospital bed as doctors cut into her back, trying to repair the damage. Her spine had been taken over by scoliosis and all that was left was an S-curve and nightmares that a promising running career could be over.

But Keddington never wanted it to end. As a sophomore she wanted to return to the track and somehow to the cross country course.

“I think the easy way out would’ve been just to give up, but I didn’t want to take the easy way,” said Keddington, a runner on the CdM girls’ cross country team that will compete in the CIF State Championships Saturday at Fresno’s Woodward Park.

The Sea Kings, who finished second in the CIF Southern Section Division III race last week, are contenders to win the state crown, but will be hard-pressed to surpass Orange Lutheran. Keddington will be there to defy the odds anyway. That’s what she’s wanted to do since that day she became stunned when a doctor told her about the ‘S.’

In August of 2007 before her sophomore year, Keddington went to a routine physical exam as required for athletics. The doctor discovered her spine was shaped like an ‘S’ and advised her to see a back specialist.

What came next was doctor after doctor. There was also constant research of scoliosis, a curving of the spine — in Keddington’s case, away from the middle of her back. The pictures from the X-rays struck fear into her family and the thought of surgery caused each to brace for the results.

With her back cut open, the surgeons stripped away the muscles so they could align the spine. Screws were drilled into her vertebrae, as two titanium rods, each about eight inches long, were inserted to keep it all straight.

The path to the track, the distance to the cross country course, seemed so far away. Keddington was under. Not just sedated, but below, down.

Before the surgery could end, the doctors had to place the muscles in their original spot and carefully return each nerve appropriately. Recovery included four nights in intensive care.

Even when it all seemed so painful, she still had that thought of a comeback.

“I learned to never give up,” she said. “That if you put your mind to something and you really believe that you can do it and work hard for it that anything is possible.

“Through the whole process I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it.”

Yes, today is a special Thanksgiving for Keddington, but even after the surgery she had plenty of reasons to be grateful. They came in the form of her family and friends who supported her return to running.

Her mother, Carolyn, slept near her daughter’s side each night after the surgery. She wanted to be the first person her daughter saw whenever she needed anything. Keddington’s father, Michael, her brothers, Taylor and Carter, and sister, Claire, were also there to encourage her. They knew it was basically impossible to stand in her way in her attempt to return to running, competing in track and field and cross country.

“She doesn’t take no for an answer,” Carolyn says. “She never does.”

Even though the confidence was there, it couldn’t mask the pain. Keddington’s swagger couldn’t even erase the sight of a wounded body, groggy from all the pain medication.

She hardly remembers the moments after the surgery. But the day after it was over, a man with caring eyes stood over her, willing and wanting to help her reach her dreams.

But initially he was saddened at just the sight of her.

“When you look at them like that it just breaks your heart,” CdM Coach Bill Sumner said. “Here’s a girl who went to the hospital, about 5-foot-4, 112 pounds and the next time I see her she is down to 89 pounds. And you look at this body and her cheeks are caved in. She looks like she is starved ... That was like my own flesh and blood. They just sucked all the life out of her. It killed me. I couldn’t handle it more than twice.”

And so the coach would call to check on Keddington and believed along with her that she would return. Keddington’s teammates also came through the room at Children’s Hospital of Orange County.

They had to see the pain too. Every two hours, the mother, along with the nurses, had turn over Keddington so that her lungs would not collapse.

How could she go back to running? How could she regain that flair as a freshman when she made the varsity on one of the best programs in the state, if not the nation?

She was told that she shouldn’t run until a year after the surgery. Keddington shook her head, no. But she was willing to compromise. Six months? That’s better even though she missed the track and field season.

Yet not all the adversity came physically. She also had to deal with playing catch-up in her academics. Missing close to a month of school forced Keddington to intensify her study habits. And because she wasn’t able to sit up in a chair early on, she would stand in several of her classes to receive the information necessary for upcoming tests.

Keddington still managed to find some joy. She, of course, took pleasure in getting her grades back up. She also smiles when she says the surgery added two inches to her height.

However, there were several times she was cut down to size. During her first sessions with the cross country team, Sumner told her to just run for a minute at a time. The minute turned to three and so on.

Keddington, who also battles with asthma and iron deficiency, continued to run. When every obstacle seemingly told her to find something else, she believed running picked her.

The payoff came last spring.

She performed well for the Sea Kings’ track and field team. Her greatest achievement, perhaps fittingly, came at the end of the season. She finished fourth in the 800 meters at the CIF Southern Section Division III finals.

Then this cross country season, she has been a runner who has been as high as fourth on the team.

“It’s pretty amazing,” said teammate Marisa Cummings, a senior who is CdM’s No. 2 runner. “Just two years ago I saw her in the hospital, laying on the bed. For her to come back in just a little time is just amazing. She is a fighter. It’s pretty inspiring.”

Keddington is not only showing her strength in competition. She has also made it a point to share her story with many, especially those who have scoliosis.

In January, she’s scheduled to speak at a CHOC fundraiser to tell her story of redemption.

“I think it would’ve been nice before I went through it to have read a story like mine,” she says. “I think I would’ve felt more confidence.”

Now she has plenty of self-esteem. She had a rough performance last week, finishing 47th, but she’s eager to turn it around, yet again, in Fresno.

“We worked really hard this whole season and we want it so bad,” Keddington said of winning a state title, which would give the Sea Kings seven, unprecedented in the meet’s history. “I know we can do it. We are really determined. Orange Lutheran is a great team, but we believe we can do it.”