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“Never Put Limitations on God”

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“You know there's a thousand people outside in the stadium waiting for you,” says football player Zeke Zaragoza, long snapper for the Oklahoma State Cowboys. 

“So when you're walking out there you're kinda getting amped up and the adrenalin's kicking in… Sometimes I have to step back and be like, ‘Wow,’ I'm here and this is real, and I shouldn't be here.”

Playing Division 1 football is an achievement for any young man – especially for one doctors didn’t expect would even be able to throw a ball. The youngest of three boys, Zeke was three when his parents, Ed and Chanin, noticed something wasn’t right.

Chanin explains, “He was walking down the hall and he started going sideways and he hit the wall. He just kept saying, ‘Why is the room moving?’ And if we were outside, ‘Why is the wind blowing me?’”

Then he started throwing up and shaking. His pediatrician sent him to the hospital, where Zeke would spend the next two weeks undergoing a battery of tests including MRIs, CT scans, and a spinal tap. Still, they had no answers.

“Then I started to get a little bit scared," says Chanin. “If it was something simple they'd have an answer right away. There's something wrong and we're starting to see him get worse.”

Within a few weeks, Zeke couldn’t even walk and his eyes were darting back and forth.

Ed shares, “He tells me, ‘Dad, my eyes aren't working.’ And it’s just, you know, that helpless feeling that you can't do anything for him.”

Despite their fears, Chanin, who as a girl had seen her mother miraculously healed of cancer, trusted God, no matter the outcome.

She says, “I think just being engrained in my mind that God does miracles and He can heal you, just made me believe, ‘Okay, well, that's what we're praying for.’”

Neurologist Dr. Charles Niesen was brought in and consulted with over twenty specialists before diagnosing Zeke with a rare disorder that affects one in ten million children: “Opsoclonus-Myoclonus Syndrome [OMS],” explains Dr. Niesen. “It's thought to be an autoimmune disease. Somehow the body is making antibodies against your eye muscles and nerve cells so that the nerves that control coordination in the back of the brain in the cerebellum aren't working so well.”

Chanin shares, “There was fear in knowing, ‘Okay, he's got something.’ But then there was also hoping knowing, ‘Okay, now what's the treatment?’”

By now, Zeke had already been suffering from the condition for over two months, and something needed to be done quickly.

Dr. Niesen cautions, “It could have affected not only his coordination but, you know, his thinking as well, his learning and his memory. His speech was already being affected.”

Dr. Niesen and a leading OMS specialist in Illinois offered them two treatment options. As Chanin explains, “If we treat him aggressive this is our hope, we hope he can walk again; we really believe he will. But he's not going to be able to play sports, throw a ball, ride a bike, do the normal kind of things that little boys do. And there could be side effects to it. Or we treat less aggressive, and he probably won't have a side effect, but he may be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.”

After much prayer and consideration, Ed and Chanin chose the aggressive option, hoping to give Zeke the best shot at long-term quality of life. Even then, there was a chance of relapse.

For the first two years, Zeke endured a rigorous, painful treatment regimen that included twice-daily injections in his legs, and monthly antibody infusions that sometimes lasted fifteen hours.

“I was the one that had to give him the shots every day,” Ed says. “And you know, it was a struggle. I mean, he knew it was going to hurt. And wishing you could take his place.”

Progress soon followed, as within months Zeke had graduated from a wheelchair to a walker. Then, more setbacks. He developed obsessive-compulsive disorder and Tourette’s syndrome, related to OMS. Chanin and Ed turned to God to keep hope alive. 

Chanin recalls, “I was on the ground definitely because I was helpless, saying, ‘Okay, you know, You love him more than I do.’ And that's hard to even fathom as a mom. But God does.” 

Then, after treatment and physical therapy, doctors declared 7-year-old Zeke to be in remission. By then, he was already testing – and breaking – the limits doctors thought he’d have.

Ed says, “If he wanted to try it, we let him try it. We’ve got some pictures of him riding around up front here on his bicycle in a Spiderman outfit. And we're amazed he's riding a bicycle!”

Dr. Niesen adds, “And you could really stand on firm ground that the thing literally left the premises.”

As for Zeke… “I felt like a normal kid,” he says, "I’d do just about anything the other guys did.”

And as he grew older and stronger, that included several sports. Then in 5th grade, he was ready for something a little more physical.

“I really wanted to try football,” says Zeke, “and that's when my mom kinda was like, ‘Oh, I don't know.’”

Chanin called the OMS specialist, who put her on speaker phone for his colleagues to hear.

Chanin remembers, “I said, ‘Zeke wants to play football, is that okay?’ And they’re like ‘What?! No way!’ And they were cheering, and they just couldn't believe it ‘cause he was considered a severe case. And so he said, ‘Absolutely!’”

Zeke went on to be a center and then long snapper in high school, where he decided he wanted to go to the next level.

He says, “I just kept pushing and kinda had that one vision that I wanted to play college football to share my story.”

Ed shares, “The dedication and the drive that he has…he's just so determined and humble at the same time.”

After graduating in 2018, Zeke earned a spot as a long snapper for Oklahoma State, where he’s studying to become a P.E. teacher and coach, and sharing his story.

Zeke says, “It was for the grace of God, and He did a miracle on me.”

And according to Dr. Niesen, “To see him go on and be a successful student and play football was just totally unpredicted and unprecedented.”

Ed adds, “It is a miracle that he is where he is.”

“Never put limitations on God, says Chanin. “He sees way in advance, we just follow along. We do what we’re supposed to do. And He has the big picture at the end. And never doubt.”


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About The Author

Shannon Woodland
Shannon
Woodland

At 25 years old, while living in Seattle, Shannon heard God say, "Go tell My story." She’s been with The 700 Club as a Features Producer for over 30 years. She lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains with her husband, Tim, and two dogs.

About The Author

Danielle Thompson
Danielle
Thompson

Ever since high school, Danielle has been finding ways to tell stories for the screen. She hopes her work inspires others with messages of truth and grace. In addition to CBN, her media work includes films, documentaries, and most recently a music video. Living in her native state of Georgia, she is married to Adam, and they have one daughter.