What He's Capable Of

Misti Crane and Jeb Phillips: Almost three months after his right calf started hurting, after countless prayers, after nearly 20 surgeries and fear that he wouldn't make it, Blake Haxton sat tall in his wheelchair on Tuesday.

He's thinner than in his senior picture, taken when he was in peak physical form, when many considered him the best high-school rower in the state. A sheet was wrapped around his lap on Tuesday and gauze around his right arm. His Upper Arlington Crew shirt hung off him.

What, he was asked, was the most difficult thing he had to overcome during all of this?

"Learning to eat hospital food," he said.