Defying the odds: Las Cruces baseball player battles back from autoimmune disease

Cedric Reynaud was living his dream of playing baseball in college, but it all took a detour in early June.

Reynaud was diagnosed with Guillain-Barr syndrome, a disease in which the immune system attacks the nerves of the body.

Reynaud was left paralyzed from his shoulders down, but he vowed to fight.

“I didn’t want to look up anything, I didn’t want to read anything about it,” Reynaud said. “I was like ok, I know what it is, and how am I going to get through it.”

Reynaud graduated from Centennial High School in 2017, and just before his illness, Reynaud had just graduated from New Mexico Military Institute where he played baseball for two seasons.

Reynaud planned to continue his education and his baseball career after signing an athletic scholarship to play baseball at Adams State, a division 2 school in Colorado.

“It made me hit rock bottom and it just humbled me,” Reyaud said. “Anything can be taken from you and I just began to think, why me?”

But with each passing day, Reynaud quickly began to get his strength back.

First being able to stand, and by the 11th day in the hospital, Reynaud was able to walk on his own.

Guillain-Barr syndrome is the same disease that forced Dallas Cowboy center Travis Federick to miss all of last season.

Cedric says Federick’s story inspired him to fight to get back on the field, but there was another source of inspiration for Cedric, a cousin who’s battling leukemia.

“You know this kid’s been fighting for his life for 9 years, and if he can do that then what’s this going to do to me,” Reynaud said.

Reyaud says that no matter what, he’s playing baseball at Adams State this season, and he credits his faith, his therapists at the Rehabilitation Hospital of Southern New Mexico, and also his family for pulling him through the darkest period of his life.