When Chris Taylor fell off a 14-foot ladder in January 2016, he said time stopped for a moment. It was during that brief instant he made his first life-saving decision. He looked for a landing spot.
“When I fell, time stood still for a second, and I saw this handicap railing below me, and I thought if I could just hit that thing because otherwise, it was all concrete below. If I could just hit that, I might live,” Taylor said.
His family had joined him that day at Stables Park, and the South Carolina weather was perfect. It was easy for everyone to find fun activities while dad taught a tennis clinic. Taylor ended the day on a ladder tasked to retrieve a drone his young son had been flying, stuck on a building rooftop. His wife witnessed the entire accident.
Taylor hit the handicap railing as he hoped and remembers only little spurts of activity afterwards. When he awoke, he saw a surgeon desperately trying to fix his right arm and elbow. An admitted alcoholic, Taylor remembers desperately wanting some water due to dehydration from drinking that day. He tried to push out of bed but didn’t realize how hurt he was, in and out of consciousness.
He had hit his temple on a fence post, severely damaged his right arm, and gouged his hip. Taylor spent 6 days in a coma and an entire month in the hospital. He had to learn how to count again.
“There were all of these body scans on me checking for brain leakage, checking for everything,” he said.
Taylor survived the fall, but the doctors had serious concerns about his liver. Although it was not damaged from the fall, scans showed it to be fatty and damaged. They would need to monitor it closely as he healed from his other injuries.
He didn’t listen right away. In fact, once home, he resumed drinking and hurried to get back to his stressful career as a financial consultant and realty developer. He also went straight to work on his pickleball game since tennis was no longer an option with his elbow.
“I just tried not to let any of that stuff stay in my way, when I was trying to get through it because they didn’t say, hey, you don’t need to drink again. So when I got through that month in the hospital and finally got out of there, I thought, okay, well, I think I’m back to normal now,” he said.
The problem was, nothing was normal. Taylor wasn’t healthy, and playing pickleball was difficult and required a lot of adjustments. He switched to lefty and spent more than 8 months trying to adjust but he still struggled to deal with the huge metal plate in place for the compound fracture he had suffered in his right forearm. His wife kept him up on his medications and all appointments. The same issue came up each time as they monitored him following the accident.
“The doctors said ‘you’re possibly in liver failure.’ But, I didn’t want to believe it. They explained you have to be sober for a year before you can even get a new liver,” he said.
It all culminated on September 17, 2017, when Taylor, who had been spitting blood for a week unbeknownst to anyone, started throwing up blood at home. His wife immediately called for help, and he was rushed to the hospital and given a 20% chance to live. They somehow stopped the bleeding, which was the result of a bleeding ulcer.
Taylor finally came to terms that his liver was failing and may not heal on its own. He dedicated himself to sobriety on September 23, 2017.
On September 1, 2018, Taylor was placed on the liver transplant list and given 6 months to live. His concerned friends and family could tell by looking at his skin and overall appearance how ill he had become.
“I’m still trying to do my job as a registered investment advisor through this whole thing. The most difficult part is that even though I’ve been in the industry for 18 years, I lost clients because they thought I would die. Not that I did a bad job, but they thought I would die. And this is their retirement, and they need an advisor,” he said.
He, of course, spent as much time with his family as possible. His wife was the glue that the family required 24/7. She was with him every step forward and backward.
“She has the hardest job in the world and other exhausting jobs outside her family. She amazes me daily,” he said.
He also enjoyed the camaraderie of pickleball more than ever which was quite different from the competitive appeal it always carried with him. Pickleball became his peace as he navigated what might happen with his situation.
That was when Chris made his second life-saving decision. He considers it the best choice he’s made and the real reason he is still alive.
“I remember, and this might sound a little hokey, but I was in the bathroom. I was crying. I was praying. I just said, now, if you let me live, I’ll make my life not about me. I’ll make my life about everybody else. This light came through the window, and the Holy Spirit entered my body. Maybe one month later, I found out I got a liver, so my promise to God was that I would put everybody first. That’s how I’m trying to live the second chance,” he said.
Taylor asked the surgical nurse what the fastest time anyone ever got out of the hospital after a liver transplant. The answer was 4.5 days, and he tied it. He held to his promise and belief that from the day he fell off the ladder he was being handed a miracle, a brutal, painful, amazing second chance.
“They cracked two of my ribs when they did the surgery at MUSC Hospital, the Medical University of South Carolina. The nurse came in and explained they just cut you in half when they take your liver out. It was excruciating,” he said.
Taylor insists that life moves differently when you are given another chance. Opportunities present themselves to you. His first decision was to encourage his wife to focus on her pickleball game and play as many tournaments as possible.
He also found a way to bring the joy of pickleball to more people.
“The Racquet Club was in disrepair. The whole club had been in disrepair because their membership had aged out. It was just an eyesore. Weeds were growing up. It looked terrible. And the whole Litchfield Country Club was like, and something needs to be done with this thing. A developer came in. He wanted to try to put all these condos in there, and the whole community called Keep it Green went crazy, and they fought the rezoning. This all matched my side business which was real estate development.”
The planning commission had its public hearing, and the project got voted down. Taylor called his partner right away.
“I told him they lost the vote. But I can’t find the trustee that manages the property for the owner. He won’t return a call. I can’t get him. He was like, what’s his name? And I told him his name. He goes. I used to work with him in Myrtle Beach. I’ll call him right now,” he said.
Taylor had been through too much to consider coincidences, and he and his wife purchased and now operate Litchfield Pickleball in Pawleys Island, South Carolina. The facility has 7 courts and all the beautiful scenery surrounding it. They just broke ground on 4 covered courts and plan to add 6 to 8 additional courts in the near future. He enjoys teaching and learning with his students.
“When I give people lessons and they’re like, I can’t do this. I’m like, listen, if I can do it, you can do it. And I don’t go into the whole story of my life, but I do explain that I am on the court after a transplant and better every day,” he said.
Taylor continues living his second chance by putting others first.
Photos provided by Chris Taylor.
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