GREENBACK, Tenn. (WVLT)
-- Kyle Mules grew up like most kids. He played
basketball and other sports.
"I was just walking around and then my legs just completely gave out on me," he said. "We didn't know what happened. I couldn't move them, but I could still feel them."
Twelve hours later, his whole body was paralyzed from a neurological disorder known as Guillain–Barré syndrome (GBS).
"It was just weird to wake up not being able to move anything, not being able to blink, move your mouth, move anything," added Mules.
He spent four months in the hospital, listening to doctors tell his family he likely wouldn't make it.
"All of a sudden, he couldn't even breathe on his own. All of his muscles stopped working," said Kyle's mom, Kelly Mules. "I just remember losing it at that moment, not knowing how it was going to turn out."
It turned out, Kyle wasn't giving up. He started recovering, slowly starting to move again. Eventually, he could leave the hospital and maneuver a wheelchair.
"In the beginning, when I could talk again, they were always saying, 'Are you angry at God for making you do this?' and I would say, 'No, I'm not. God has a plan for me. I don't know what it is, but He wouldn't do it without a plan,'" said Kyle.
Six years and nine surgeries later, that plan changed again. This time, it was a real step in the right direction.
"I always put it that if I can't, then I'm OK with being in a wheelchair. I'm fine with it. I have fun in it, but if I can walk, I can walk," said Kyle.
Now, he can walk: Kyle is took his first steps in six years last week.
New braces help teach his knees how to bend and his muscles to stretch. Each step is a step towards his ultimate goal; which is to walk down the aisle this fall at his brother's wedding.
"I don't know what this part of our journey is going to be about, but I think we're going to see a lot of new things. I really do. I feel it," said Kelly.
"We're leaving his chair in the dust;
which is cool," she added as she watched
her son walk without help from anyone
else.