- Joined
- Jun 13, 2004
- Messages
- 846
- Reaction score
- 3
What has been your best or most rewarding experience as a PT?
Mine happened about a year and a half ago. I got a new patient in our SCI rehab unit - active duty Marine, injured in a parachuting accident, R acetabular fracture, L femur fracture (and by fracture, I mean *shattered*) with external fixation, SCI at T7, ASIA C (incomplete).
All I could do with him for about 2 months was some gentle ROM and conditioning exercises in bed. He literally was in too much pain to move. Finally after 2 months, he told me he was ready to get up. We got him up to a W/C and he came to the clinic. After about a month, he was transfering independently but had SEVERE pain in the R leg. He also had severe quad contractures and could only flex his knees to about 90. Much of our sessions consisted of rigging various contraptions to stretch his quads. That man had the highest pain tolerance I have ever seen in my life.
Eventually he got osteomyelitis and they had to remove the external fixator. They told him he would never walk because there was not enough calcium formation in the femur fracture for it to be completely stable. One day, his pain completely broke and within a week he was totally independent from a W/C level. He begged me to let him try to walk (his legs were more flexible and quite a bit stronger, probably ASIA D at this point) but I couldn't until I got clearance from the physician. They looked at his x-rays again and said, no way buddy. Your leg will break again. I convinced them to let us do about 25% weight-bearing to try to stimulate some more bone growth so we did tilt table for a while. He got some more calcium deposition but not enough. Finally I think they got sick of listening to him ask, so they allowed us to try walking. The first day he made it 5 feet with a walker. No pain. The leg didn't break. No one could understand how he was walking on a shattered femur.
After 4 weeks of that, he was walking independently with a walker. We discharged him to go home and get some outpatient therapy. Total time in the hospital? About a year.
He still comes back every time he drives through Richmond from PA to NC.
He is now walking independently with a cane. He has had a hip replacement and they lengthened his leg a bit. He's going back to school this year to become a physical therapist.
I have to say, that was the greatest experience I've had as a PT - progress was mind numbingly slow at times but they guy had great heart and he made it!!!
Mine happened about a year and a half ago. I got a new patient in our SCI rehab unit - active duty Marine, injured in a parachuting accident, R acetabular fracture, L femur fracture (and by fracture, I mean *shattered*) with external fixation, SCI at T7, ASIA C (incomplete).
All I could do with him for about 2 months was some gentle ROM and conditioning exercises in bed. He literally was in too much pain to move. Finally after 2 months, he told me he was ready to get up. We got him up to a W/C and he came to the clinic. After about a month, he was transfering independently but had SEVERE pain in the R leg. He also had severe quad contractures and could only flex his knees to about 90. Much of our sessions consisted of rigging various contraptions to stretch his quads. That man had the highest pain tolerance I have ever seen in my life.
Eventually he got osteomyelitis and they had to remove the external fixator. They told him he would never walk because there was not enough calcium formation in the femur fracture for it to be completely stable. One day, his pain completely broke and within a week he was totally independent from a W/C level. He begged me to let him try to walk (his legs were more flexible and quite a bit stronger, probably ASIA D at this point) but I couldn't until I got clearance from the physician. They looked at his x-rays again and said, no way buddy. Your leg will break again. I convinced them to let us do about 25% weight-bearing to try to stimulate some more bone growth so we did tilt table for a while. He got some more calcium deposition but not enough. Finally I think they got sick of listening to him ask, so they allowed us to try walking. The first day he made it 5 feet with a walker. No pain. The leg didn't break. No one could understand how he was walking on a shattered femur.
After 4 weeks of that, he was walking independently with a walker. We discharged him to go home and get some outpatient therapy. Total time in the hospital? About a year.
He still comes back every time he drives through Richmond from PA to NC.
He is now walking independently with a cane. He has had a hip replacement and they lengthened his leg a bit. He's going back to school this year to become a physical therapist.
I have to say, that was the greatest experience I've had as a PT - progress was mind numbingly slow at times but they guy had great heart and he made it!!!
