Helping those Injured to Find Their Strength

Anthony had just been named the captain of his university basketball team. At 22 he was on top of the world. Then a terrible car crash changed everything. It always does. The driver was drunk and Anthony was a passenger.

“We went over a curb and boom, I instantly hopped up. I was looking at a pole coming straight. I couldn’t even brace myself,” he eventually told a local news reporter.

At the hospital where he was rushed, doctors confirmed that he was paralyzed. After grueling emergency surgery where two neck vertebrae were fused and a titanium implant replaced another one, surgeons told him he would have no chance of walking again. When Anthony realized the gravity of it all, he broke down.  

But Spaulding teamed up with Anthony to help him find his strength. His robust therapy program, combined with Anthony’s will power and commitment to doing more, had him first sitting up in a wheelchair, then using a walker, and then walking on his own.

In three short months after the accident, Anthony walked into his appointment with his neurosurgeon. He’s now back at school, and can run drills and shoot a three-pointer. His goal is to pick up where he left off – to lead his basketball team.

Spaulding has been ranked as #2 in the nation in 2018 by US News and World Report. The high quality rehabilitation care we provide helps people get their life back. That is why Spaulding has long ranked as one of the top rehabilitation hospital in the country, and in the last five years leap-frogged to #2.

We encourage you to partner with us again to help those like Anthony find their strength!

• US News and World Report Ranks Spaulding #2 (PDF)
  

A student of Aeronautical Engineering who sustained a brain injury found her strength to begin her return to the community.

Kristina, a 21 year old, aspired to a career in aeronautics. As a patient at Spaulding, she fought to recover from a brain injury that left her with severe headaches and mobility issues, which often limited her.

But she never gave up during her therapy sessions and persevered through them. Prior to her discharge we planned a community outing to the Museum of Science to address her mobility and activity tolerance. No matter how she felt, she was determined that she was going on this outing.  The only exhibit she truly cared about seeing was a special exhibit NASA shuttle since this was exactly her field. She, another patient, and two therapistst piled into our therapeutic recreation van (obtained with support from Global Giving and TripAdvisor) and headed to the museum. Kristine later told us she said she felt “privileged” to be part of this small group of 4, "a girl's afternoon out" which made her feel more comfortable.

As we approached the simulated shuttle (in her wheelchair), she was bubbling with excitement! She practically jumped out of her chair to climb into the shuttle, exclaiming she had always wanted to get inside one. She climbed in and contorted her body to fit inside without the assist from staff. Pain was not even an issue (even though her pain level was high that day) since she was having the time of her life! This outing made all the difference for this young woman giving her the confidence and joy she needed to return back to the community independently.

A simple outing. An "outta' this world" outcome. Kristina found her strength!