Within a three month period, 2-year-old Troy Ramsey went from being a healthy toddler learning how to walk to a barely functioning paraplegic on the verge of death.

In December of 2008, Troy was experiencing pain in his hips and was taken to the doctor to determine what was causing the toddler pain.

Troy went through multiple incorrect diagnoses and nearly died before it was discovered he had spondilodiscitis, an inflammation of the base and upper plates of the vertebra as well as the adjoining intervertebral disc in the spine.

“I really thought he was going to die, seeing him in so much pain,” said Marshall Ramsey, Troy’s father. “I had just about given up. I was so scared.”

Normally, Troy’s mother Amanda said, spondilodiscitis is something that is found in older people of about 60. He was also diagnosed with having an arachnoid cyst in his brain.

Troy became involved with Dance Marathon while he was being diagnosed in Iowa City two years ago. He attended for the first time in 2011.

Now Troy’s condition has improved, but there are occasional hiccups. In 2011, right before Dance Marathon, the doctors informed his parents that the cyst in his brain was growing. During his most recent MRI, in May 2011, they also discovered the three vulnerable vertebrae in his spine were fusing together.