Paralyzed Man Can Walk Again Hit by Car
In September, Cole Thomas was driving his co-workers to a job site when a deer darted in front of his truck. He swerved to avoid it and landed in a ditch. When he tried correcting the turn and pulling dorsum onto the road, he spun out of control and the truck rolled three times. After opening his eyes, Thomas noticed he could run across his legs, but couldn't motion them.
"I realized I was injure very badly," Thomas, 34, told TODAY. "I looked down at my legs and I couldn't feel them and I was like 'Oh boy.'"
As he waited for the ambulance, he had to hold himself up with his arms or else he felt excruciating hurting. A skilful Samaritan eventually helped concur Thomas up until help came.
Rescuers flew him to St. Anthony's Hospital in Chicago, where doctors learned Thomas shattered his L2 vertebra, with pieces of it embedded in his spinal cord. Doctors performed surgery to remove the os and insert two rods and eight screws to stabilize the spine. It seemed unlikely he would walk again.
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"I was paralyzed from the waist downward. I had very, very minimal feeling," he said.
But Thomas, of Rockford, Illinois, felt determined to walk over again. He wanted to dance with his wife, Tara, and somewhen walk daughters Rylie, 9, and Taylor, v down the aisle at their weddings.
He posted a video on Facebook from his hospital bed, pleading for people to connect him to resources that could assistance him walk. That's when a relative discovered the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab on Erie Street in Chicago. 8 days later his blow, Thomas moved to in-patient therapy.
"At kickoff, information technology is really bleak," he said. "I didn't know anything. You lot're basically a baby just coming into the world."
The therapists focused on a high intensity, chore specific training program, which they designed and believe information technology leads to meliorate outcomes. When Thomas all the same had no feeling from the waist downwardly, the therapists fabricated him use his upper body and become out of bed without help.
After a month of in-patient therapy, Thomas felt despondent with his lack of progress. One day his therapist conducted a impact examination to see if any feeling had returned. It hadn't.
"Information technology put me downwards in the dumps," he said.
So Thomas closed his optics and said a prayer over and over. When he opened his eyes, he saw his left large toe moving.
"That had to have been a sign," he said. "That is the farthest identify for your brain to ship a indicate."
This toe became the offset of Thomas' incredible progress. Subsequently he completed two months of in-patient rehab, he started mean solar day rehab. And he connected gaining movement. By Thanksgiving, he moved his big toe on his right leg. In the centre of December, he was belongings himself upwards on the parallel bars and felt similar his left leg wanted to move.
"I shimmied with my arms on the bars and took a couple steps," he said. His upper body completely supported his lower, merely he felt inspired that his legs wanted to movement.
On New Year's Eve while visiting with his family, he pulled himself up and stood for the first fourth dimension, until the family dog, Tygra, knocked him down. Less than a calendar week afterward, he asked his therapist, Megan Hufnagel, if he could do walking. He progressed from walking with a walker with braces on his legs, to walking without the braces and then without the walker.
"His recovery has been remarkable. Every single week, he was reaching milestones," said Hufnagel. "Every Friday Cole did something new."
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Simply seven months later doctors told him he couldn't walk, Thomas is walking and returning home.
"It's merely actually rewarding and very inspiring to see," said Hufnagel. "Attitude is of import in terms of recovery. He came in hither and was gear up to piece of work."
Every morning, Thomas played music to pump upwards himself and the other patients while he led them in their warm-upward exercises. When he wasn't in therapy, he worked out.
"I knew I was going to have to give rehab and therapy 110 per centum only similar I did my job. I have to walk again no matter what," he said. "I have to exist the best I could be."
Thomas graduated from the rehab programme past walking out the door and looks forward to walking his dog and canoeing. He hopes someday to be a physical therapist and help others.
"I have something that many other concrete therapy students don't take," he said. "I have 7 and a half months' experience."
Source: https://www.today.com/health/after-being-paralyzed-waist-down-man-walks-again-t110751
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