A journey to near impossible recovery aided by Rehab Services

Jun 18, 2017 News

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By Sharmain Grainger
Life can sometimes take a drastic turn for the worse. This is something that 50-year-old

Wendell Eastman understands all too well. You see, Eastman had a rather normal life until one day when he was struck down. The interesting thing about this incident is that Eastman to this day has no idea what hit him. All he remembers is walking along D’Urban Street, Georgetown, earlier this year and then waking up a patient at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
“I don’t have a clue what happened, but I was told that I get knock down (by a motor vehicle) and I was unconscious,” related Eastman during a recent interview. The incident, which remains an unsolved hit-and-run case, occurred on February 18 last.
Before being struck down, Eastman was an able-bodied security guard working at the Trinity Methodist Church. But when he regained consciousness in a hospital bed, he was greeted with the news that the possibility existed that he would never be able to stand, much less walk again. This was owing to the fact that he had sustained severe injuries to his spinal cord.
Simply put, the spinal cord, which according to medical experts is the most important nerve system, serves as the messenger that tells the brain how to move the muscles of the body. The spinal cord is that bony structure that is positioned at the base of the brain and extends to the lower back.
The news of his damaged spinal cord was understandably devastating since Eastman really couldn’t imagine himself being dependent on anyone.
“I always doing things for myself, but when I was hospitalized for about a month, for most of

that time I could hardly move,” recalled the Quamina Street, Georgetown resident. But before being discharged, Eastman was determined to beat the odds.
When that day came he had started, though with considerable difficulty, to regain movement in certain parts of his body, so much so that he was able to sit up and even try to get out of bed.
The health workers who attended to him couldn’t help but conclude that with immense dedication, Eastman had a chance of being completely restored.
He was moreover referred to the Rehabilitation arm of the Public Health Ministry, which has an office at the Palms Geriatric Home. Eastman was essentially required to join a number of other patients in need of rehabilitation services already accessing the services there.
At home, Eastman was fortunate to have a sister lend considerable support. But the real restorative support for his barely-able anatomy came from the experts at the Rehabilitation Department.
Although he is not 100 percent where he needs to be, Eastman acknowledged that he has indeed come a far way.
“Right now I can ride a bicycle, but I can’t stretch out my hands as much as I want as yet but I’m praying to the ‘Almighty’ to get there soon,” said Eastman, as he lauded the physical therapy that he has been receiving.
During a recent visit to the Rehabilitation Department, Eastman was engaged in some intense shoulder exercise.

HELPING TO RESTORE PATIENTS
Helping to restore patients like Eastman who suffer from traumatic conditions is a Physical

Therapist by the name of Christine Alphonso. Alphonso is a product of the University of Guyana’s Rehabilitation Services programme. In fact, she was among the five who made up the second batch to graduate from the programme last year.
With the skills she gained from the Bachelor’s Degree in Physical Therapy, Alphonso just over five months ago joined the team at the Rehabilitation Department.
She was there to help Eastman when he first started attending therapy sessions. He could have barely moved his limbs then, but his recovery has since advanced tremendously.
Alphonso said that she was swayed into Rehabilitation Services because of her passion for sports. She would however learn that the area was even more encompassing. “The skills that I have learnt help me to not only deal with sports injuries, but I can help to fix any movement disorder…any restriction in movement for that matter,” related Alphonso.
Although she was aware of the immense impact physical therapy can have on patients with limited mobility, Alphonso said that she is yet amazed every day when she sees how they progress. She reflected on a number of patients she has worked closely with, even one whose mobility in the arm became restricted after completing a mastectomy (removal of a breast).
“She had breast cancer and they had to completely remove one of her breasts, but just after the surgery she couldn’t move her arm on the same side that the breast was…but after just four (therapy) sessions, she started to regain movement and that was so amazing,” confided Alphonso.

ANDREW GILES
Yet another patient that Alphonso has labeled a success story is 58-year-old Andrew Giles. He, like Eastman, sustained spinal cord injuries in February. However, his has been so severe that it has left him a paraplegic – that is, paralyzed

from the waist down. Giles sustained his injuries when a pallet with about 45 bags of potatoes fell on his back while he was bending over. It all happened when he was on duty as a stevedore at the Demerara Shipping Paradise.
According to Alphonso, “when we first saw him in his manual wheelchair, his wife pushed him. He wasn’t sure how to use it and he had poor sitting balance and was unable to transfer from the chair to a bed and vice versa.”
But Giles’ exposure to physical therapy has changed all that. Today, with proper posture, he can easily manage his own wheelchair, and shifting from bed to wheelchair, according to him, is now almost effortless. He is confident that with continued therapy he will see even more improvements, a notion that has been fully endorsed by Alphonso.

AHKIL RODNEY
But then there are cases like that of Ahkil Rodney that really make the heart sink.
The 13-year-old moved from being a normal energetic youth to one that can barely talk and walk after he developed encephalitis in September of last year.
Encephalitis is an acute inflammation of the brain which is usually caused by a viral infection. By developing the condition, Rodney lost most of his motor skills including speech. He, moreover, was exposed to intense speech and language therapy together with physical therapy sessions, and now is clearly on the road to recovery. “Today he can make clear sentences just like anybody else and he is walking with little assistance…he is making great progress,” said Alphonso of Rodney, who enjoys playing basketball and football, though in a confined environment, as part of his prescribed exercise routine.
The foregoing cases are just a few of the success stories of the rarely talked about Rehabilitation Department of the Public Health Ministry which will be amplified this week to mark the observance of Rehabilitation Week 2017.
Under the theme “Reaching out empowering communities”, the observance will commence today and will recognize the importance of the various levels of Rehabilitation Services which fall under the categories of: physical therapy, speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and audiology services.
Activities in this regard will kick off today with a brunch at the Kingston, Georgetown Umana Yana, which is expected to see the attendance of a number of notable figures including Ministers of Government, and of course, staffers who execute the Rehabilitation Services.
The observance will continue tomorrow morning with a blood drive at the Ptolemy Reid Rehab Centre from 08:30 to 12 noon and in the evening there will be a Cocktail Reception and Award Ceremony at the Pegasus Hotel. This will be followed by staff development and educational sessions on different health conditions that require rehab services on Tuesday.
An outreach to Essequibo on Wednesday will see the rehab staffers executing their screening skills to help detect persons with various impairments. The week of activities will culminate with staff activities on Thursday and Friday.
Alphonso is especially eager to be a part of the celebration of Rehabilitation Services Week for the first time this year, since, according to her, “I feel good about what I do, because you can actually play a big role in helping somebody ease pain or improve their mobility so that they can have a normal life again.”

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