Friday at Moca

Today we had an incredible experience (both sad and exciting). We had a patient that was in a motorcycle accident (very common here: 250 a day in Santo Domingo alone) and she ended up with a traumatic brain injury, right sided paralysis, a trach, and we assumed several internal injuries based on the nasty scars on her stomach.  This was her first visit to PT, her accident was 9 months ago. She has not been doing much of anything since then, and in order to get out of the house, someone would lift her from her bed and into a wheel chair.  We did not get her exact age, but we would guess she was in her late teens or early twenties.  She was in a lot of pain, but eager to learn whatever we had to teach. After assessing her mobility and sitting balance, we realized that she would be capable of doing a lot more than she has been.  We asked her if she would like more independence and she said yes.  We taught her how to do a stand pivot transfer from the bed to/from the chair to allow her to be more active in the transfers and have more independence.  At first this was a challenge since the mat was about waist height and could not be raised or lowered. We ended up problem solving and taking her to the pediatric room where they had a mat that was closer to the height of her bed.  The first couple transfers were a challenge due to the language barrier and the brain injury, however she learned quickly and we were able to teach her sister how to help her so that she can practice at home.  She was so excited about being able to have more functional ability than she has for the last nine months that she gave me one of her bracelets as a token of gratitude. 

 

  This was an incredible experience to be able to assist her in this way, however it was definitely bittersweet.  The downside is knowing that she has so much potential that she will most likely not attain due to the lack of knowledge of neuro conditions and the lack of resources.  We will hopefully get to work with her again next week and do as much education as possible for her family and the other PTs so that she will get the best treatment possible.