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Ron Springs
Claim to Fame: Dallas Cowboys Football Player
DOB: November 4, 1956
Diabetes Type: 2
Ronald Edward Springs was born on November 4, 1956 in Williamsburg, Virginia. He began his collegiate football career at Coffeyville Community College in 1975 before transferring to Ohio State University the following year. It was here that Springs’ skills on the field flourished, and his leadership qualities soon gained him a spot as the team’s co-captain.
Springs was drafted by the Dallas Cowboy’s football club in 1979, where he stayed for six NFL seasons. In 1985 he was traded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers where he played for two seasons before retiring from professional football.
In 1990, Springs was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, which eventually led to the amputation of his right foot and ultimately kidney failure. In 2004, he was put on the national transplant list after it was determined that none of his family members were a match. Then in February of 2007 former Dallas Cowboys teammate and best friend Everson Walls donated one of his kidneys to Springs.
The following March, Springs and Everson shared their story with the world during a press conference at Medical City Dallas. Since then, the pair has developed The Gift for Life Foundation, an organization committed to educating the minority community on the illnesses that cause chronic kidney disease, ways to prevent it, and the donor process. They provide blood pressure and diabetic testing, as well as opportunities for children to attend Camp Reynal, a camp designed for kids who suffer from kidney-related diseases.
Only eight months after his surgery, Springs went into Medical City Dallas Hospital on October 12, 2007 where he expected to have minor surgery done in order to remove a cyst from his arm, this was not the case however. Springs did not regain consciousness after the procedure, leaving him in a coma and permanently incapacitated mentally and physically. His wife, Adriane Springs, filed a law suit against the anesthesiologist, and doctors involved in the case. She later went on to become a plaintiff in a federal constitutional challenge to the $250,000 Texas cap on non-economic damages in healthcare liability actions.
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