With determination, hard work, and help from Mary Free Bed's Driver Rehabilitation Program, Dan Bolhouse is back in the driver's seat.

After suffering a spinal cord injury from a snowmobile accident, Dan Bolhouse closed the door to negativity.

Dan had been snowmobiling since he was a child. While on a trip with his buddies in 1999, he took an unexpected sharp turn too fast and crashed straight into a tree. He devastatingly injured the T7 vertebrae in his spine, causing him to be paralyzed from the waist down.

Dan’s parents chose Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital for his therapy. They did their research, and had facilities picked out from Denver to Miami. But it was a referral from a close friend that led them to choose Mary Free Bed. Dan believes it was a good choice because it allowed him to be close to his family for support.

He enjoyed the staff who worked with him in therapy because they pushed him to excel. Dan was very active before his accident and played all kinds of sports. “I appreciated the staff because they were able to do my therapy with the physical rigor that I was used to.”

Dan was in the inpatient Spinal Cord Injury Program for about two and half months. He completed the ParaStep Program, which involves a special walker to stimulate paralyzed muscles at different times in the gait cycle to allow for walking. Because of his competitive nature, he stayed motivated throughout his entire recovery.

After recovering from a spinal cord injury or other traumatic injuries, most people look forward to driving again. It’s often the last piece of the puzzle to restoring freedom and independence. Dan was no exception. He remembers being very eager to get back on the road.

“I knew it was a matter of when I am going to do this [drive again], not if,” he says.

In just a week and a half after completing inpatient therapy, he was confidently ready to be on the road again. Through the Driver Rehabilitation Program at Mary Free Bed, Dan quickly learned how to use the hand controls necessary to navigate his vehicle.

With the help of his uncle, he quickly found a car, and contacted Michigan Rehabilitation Services (MRS) to help set up and pay for his modified equipment.

“The process was easy because everyone was working towards the same goal” shares Dan.

One thing that Dan recommends for individuals seeking modified vehicles is to begin communication early with MRS when starting the process. This helps ensure everything is compatible and the paperwork is complete.

Getting behind the wheel again filled the gap in restoring Dan’s independence. “I regained the sense of freedom to come and go as I wanted.”

He now drives all the time – typically putting almost 40,000 miles on his car every year. In recent years, Dan has driven himself to south Florida to visit family and other places such as Baton Rouge and Dallas for wheelchair tennis tournaments.

“I would recommend driver rehabilitation to anyone” Dan says with his customary positivity. “It can only benefit you and help you build confidence on the road.”

Golfing in the Southwest: Christy and Coert Vanderhill return to the golf course after surviving a serious car accident. Christy spent weeks recovering from multiple traumas and a spinal cord injury.

My sisters and I walked into the hospital room just after four in the morning. My mom lay still and flat with tubes coming out of her chest, draining blood from her lungs into bags that were hung around her hospital bed.

Despite all the serious injuries my mom sustained, I most vividly remember that image of her blood just pouring into those bags.

My mom and dad were driving home after an evening playing golf. They were on the highway when traffic started to slow. A car was on fire on the shoulder of the road and fire fighters were working to put out the fire.

Naturally, people had stopped to gawk at the scene.

A driver in the next lane failed to notice he was approaching the stopped traffic too quickly. He slammed on his brakes and swerved to the left, crushing the rear right side of my dad’s car.

My mom, who was sitting in the passenger’s seat, received the worst of the injuries.

Relatively uninjured, my dad saw that my mom wasn’t breathing. He summoned the firefighters, who immediately came to my mom’s aid.

Dad was sent to Holland Hospital while my mom was airlifted to Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids.

The worst of my mom’s injuries was her rotated and broken T9 vertebrae. The broken vertebrae came within a millimeter of hitting my mom’s spinal cord. Also injured were four of the ligaments that support the vertebrae.

Additionally, Mom had a fractured pelvis on both sides, broken ribs, and was bleeding internally between her lungs and chest wall.

Later that day, Mom underwent surgery to fuse the broken vertebrae and have titanium rods inserted in her back.

The doctors were astonished my mom wasn’t paralyzed – the millimeter of bone left protecting her spinal cord is all that saved her.

A week after the accident, my mom was transferred to Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital. For the next three months she wore a full body brace and used a wheelchair while she recovered.

“I couldn’t bend at the waist so there were so many things I had to learn to do a different way, like taking a shower and getting dressed,” she remembers. “They taught me how to take care of myself and to be as independent as possible.”

Therapy helped my mom to learn to transfer herself to and from the wheelchair as well as practice getting around.

My mom said, “One of the most memorable times at Mary Free Bed for me was practicing shopping in a market [in the therapy gym]. There’s a heavy door at the entrance you have to open and then navigate the wheelchair around to get inside. I never realized how difficult that could be.”

She also walked with a walker to regain muscle use. The intense therapy helped my mom to walk before her doctor’s had expected. She healed fast. After two and a half weeks she was able to go home.

“I always felt encouraged because the therapists were cheerful and made me feel confident that I would heal in time,” Mom said. “They were great at tailoring my therapy to my injury and to my needs. They wanted me to leave as independent as possible.”

The only consequence of the accident Mom faces today is injury-induced arthritis in her back and hips, which hinders her from doing certain physical activities, such as cross country skiing.

Six years later, it’s still unbelievable to think that one millimeter is all that separated my mom from a few months of recovery to dealing a life-changing spinal cord injury.

My family and I are thankful not just that my mom is alive, but that she also gets to continue doing the things she loves (with golfing at the top of the list!).

Hittin' hard: Beth Redford back in the game after a spinal cord injury.

by Beth Redford

After a few days, I have recovered from playing in the recent Grand Rapids Wheelchair Sports Association (GRWSA) Tennis Fundraising Tournament at Ramblewood in Grand Rapids.

The weekend started with picking up three cases of tennis balls for tournament director and wheelchair tennis head coach, Lynn Bender, and delivering them to Ramblewood. After being part of the WZZM13 interview and helping to set up, I played a first round match in the 6.0 women’s bracket.

My partner, Karen Reid, helps out as GRWSA volunteer and coach. Karen was just one of many volunteers and supporters who helped and participated in this past weekend’s tournament. We are thankful for each one of them.

While we didn’t win our second match on Saturday , it was a close match that was challenging, yet fun. On Sunday, I played three matches of mixed doubles with another of our volunteers, Randy Kloostra. Both of our first two matches went to third set tiebreakers, which we hung on to win. This put us in the finals, but we came up against a better team and finished as runners-up.

Ten years ago, I was recovering from a spinal cord surgery after spending 4 weeks that summer at Mary Free Bed. As an athletic director for a local high school, I always enjoyed competition and being part of team sports. Connecting with GRWSA tennis has allowed me to travel, make many great friends, and enjoy competition again as a participant.

This tournament was just another experience to enjoy good competition and be a part of the fundraising efforts for GRWSA. It was especially rewarding to hear that the efforts of many paid off as we exceeded our fundraising goal. These funds will provide equipment, practice time, and opportunities for others to enjoy wheelchair tennis.

More information about adaptive sports >

More information about the Grand Rapids Wheelchair Sports Association >

Grand Rapids Wheelchair Sports Association on Facebook >

"I've learned to hug my children tighter and to kiss my wife every time I leave them," Matthew says.

by Coertney Vanderhill

Blog manager’s note: While the blog post below about Matthew Sexton gives an overview of his accident and rehabilitation, I recommend you head straight to Matthew’s personal blog for a candid and poignant accounting of his accident and recovery. 

Matthew Sexton was riding his motorcycle on his way to work early one morning. He was cruising down  a two-lane road when he noticed an SUV heading straight toward him. As he veered to the shoulder to avoid an accident, the SUV swerved in the same direction and hit Matthew head on.

Matthew flew through the air and landed in the grass in someone’s front yard. He remembers hearing something that sounded like a twig snapping. Then, he heard voices around telling him an ambulance was on the way.

On Matthew’s blog, he describes his accident with vivid detail.

Until the moment he stopped breathing, Matthew was aware of everything happening around him. Through his training as a volunteer firefighter, he knew he had to lie still until a backboard and cervical collar was applied.

“I felt the last breath exhale and heard sirens in the distance,” he recalls in a blog post. “The rest is black and cold.”

Matthew realized later that the twig-snapping sound was that of his T5 vertebrae severing, paralyzing him from the waist down. He sustained several other injuries as well. Matthew’s lower leg was almost torn from his body, and he suffered collapsed lungs, a broken pelvis, and two broken arms. Matthew jokes that the only thing left uninjured was his left leg and that his forearms are all metal, but also says, “I have function. I can feel things. Everything works.”

He spent four weeks at South Bend Memorial Hospital, and then two months at a nursing home while his arms healed. Almost four months later he arrived at Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital.

When Matthew arrived at Mary Free Bed, he still needed a lot of help getting in and out of bed, and he couldn’t use a wheelchair on his own. During the month he spent in Mary Free Bed’s Spinal Cord Injury Program, he learned how to do those things, plus many more.

From the beginning of his rehabilitation, Matthew had a positive attitude and strong goals. He wanted to get back to his kids. His kids are what drove him to get better, faster.

“They’re [his kids] amazing because they don’t see the difference,” Matthew said. “I’m the same dad. That’s what made me get through this.”

After his inpatient stay, Matthew and his wife drove over an hour to come to Mary Free Bed for outpatient rehabilitation. They stayed the night at The Inn at Mary Free Bed and found the drive to be completely worth it.

While Matthew had several therapies during his time at Mary Free Bed, pool therapy was his favorite.

“Of everything that made me feel normal, I can swim just like I did before,” Matthew says. “That’s great for people to feel like they can do something that they could before the accident.”

Before the accident, Matthew liked to play outside with his kids, as well as go to Silver Lake and go deer hunting with his family. He also really enjoyed his work as a volunteer firefighter.

“It’s tough to watch [people doing things that you used to do], and know that you can’t do it anymore.”

Little by little, Matthew is finding ways to get back to the things he loves. The fire department is working on putting hand controls in one of the rescue trucks so that he can drive it. While he won’t be on the front line anymore, he’ll still be able to help out.

“Since the accident, I have learned to enjoy every minute that I’m alive and not to hesitate telling every person in my life exactly how much they mean to me,” Matthew says on his blog. “I’ve learned to hug my children tighter and to kiss my wife every time I leave them.”

The right to choose: Because Tammy was in a coma following her car accident, she depended on her husband to research and choose a rehabilitation facility for treatment for her traumatic injuries.

It was the click she didn’t hear that turned Tammy Helton’s life upside down.

Last July 9, Tammy hopped into her Jeep to head to the home in Twin Lakes that she shared with her husband, Mike, and the youngest of their three children. The music was cranked, and Tammy doesn’t remember hearing the click of the seat belt, which was often finicky when it came to latching.

She does remember driving a little too fast when rounding a corner less than a mile from home.

Tammy swerved to miss the deer that had materialized in the roadway, over-corrected, lost control, and flipped her Jeep.

Tammy doesn’t remember much about the accident. They have told her that the EMTs arrived to find that she had been thrown clear of her vehicle, breaking three vertebrae in her neck. She suffered a traumatic brain injury and was partially paralyzed.

After nine days in intensive care at Hackley Hospital in Muskegon, Mike Helton had his wife transferred to Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital – where she began the long journey to recovery.

“My husband did all of the research needed to get me into Mary Free Bed,” Tammy recalls. “He couldn’t consult with me at the time, because I was in a coma. Mike had had a couple of friends who mentioned the hospital, so he went online and checked it out.

“Mary Free Bed is ranked one of the top in the state, and it’s under an hour from where we live. That was pretty wonderful. It has turned out to be a good choice.”

Choice is key – as are programs and staff – when it comes to deciding on a rehabilitation facility. Patients, such as Tammy, are too traumatized by their accidents or illness to participate in the selection process. Their families are equally distressed and often don’t ask the right questions needed to select the best facility.

Mike Helton did his homework, though. He knew Mary Free Bed is the only dedicated rehabilitation hospital in West Michigan – and one of only two in the state. His research showed him each new inpatient works with a team of specialists led by a physiatrist – a doctor who specializes in physical medicine and rehabilitation – as well as a physical therapist, occupational therapist, speech therapist, recreational therapist, and social worker to design a customized recovery program.

Inpatients receive three hours of individualized therapy each day, while many programs offer only two hours. Finally, Mike appreciated that Mary Free Bed has specialties in brain and spinal cord injuries that would allow his wife to get the rehabilitation she needed, and then support her when was ready to return home.

When Tammy arrived at Mary Free Bed, she said the staff wondered if she could recover. She was unable to feed herself, drink out of a glass, brush her teeth, control her hands and feet, write, or walk. By the time she was well enough to head home for Christmas, she was talking on a cell phone, dressing herself, and putting in her own earrings.

“Mary Free Bed has been a very good choice,” she says. “It’s been a long process to get where we are right now, and I have a long way to go. My husband and I are both hoping that I can walk by next Christmas.

“Everyone who worked with me at Mary Free Bed has been really wonderful. The therapists are just so terrific. When they take one of us on, they want us to succeed. I would highly recommend Mary Free Bed to anyone who is fortunate enough to come here. It’s a really wonderful place.”

Blog manager’s note: If you, or a loved one, need physical rehabilitation, you have the right to choose where you receive treatment. By law, your hospital discharge planner must provide you with all of your options. In some cases, you may need to be very vocal about your preference. You have a right to demand the treatment you deem best for you or for someone you love. Read more about choosing a rehabilitation hospital.

Leading the way: Kent Riddle, CEO, and Dr. John Butzer, Medical Director, partner up to lead Mary Free Bed into a new era.

A couple of months ago, I sat in a meeting with Mary Free Bed’s fearless CEO, Kent Riddle, going over a speech he’d written. When my eyes hit this sentence – “It’s a new era at Mary Free Bed” – it was obvious that not only had Kent nailed the speech, but he’d also defined something essential about present day Mary Free Bed.

Not just a shiny new year, but an auspicious new era

As January 1 nears, don’t you find most people waffle between the heady promise of new beginnings and a sense of failure over unfulfilled resolutions from the previous year?

At Mary Free Bed, I think it’s safe to say we have that heady-new-beginning thing going on.

We can feel change all around us. With the new Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital Network growing and a strategic alliance formed with the renowned Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Mary Free Bed staff members are all ignited by this new era.

For Kent to refer to the current evolution of Mary Free Bed as a new era, well, that really put a fine point on it for me, and I suspect for others here as well.

Mary Free Bed’s leader looks ahead

With timing on my side – I found myself in Kent’s office for a couple of minutes – and the new year just days away, I asked Kent what he foresaw for Mary Free Bed in the coming 12 months.

For those of you who’ve never come in contact with Kent, the first thing you’ll figure out is that he’s in love with Mary Free Bed. I mean he’s full out, full fledged in love. He has his reasons for this passion and dedication, but that’s another blog post.

So, to put such question to Mary Free Bed’s CEO elicits a combination of Cheshire grins and furrowed brow as he contemplates all that’s ahead. While the new year is indeed full of the promise of new beginnings, the complications that make up the business world mean many of those plans are still under wraps. But what we can share is good.

(Note: Next year, look for a video of Kent talking about new things to come in the new year. What’s missing in the list below is Kent’s fervor and gusto for Mary Free Bed and its patients. His excitement is truly infectious.)

2012 at Mary Free Bed

You can be assured the Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Network will continue to add partners, bringing our rehabilitation expertise to even more Michigan residents.

At the downtown Mary Free Bed campus, we’ll also be taking more patients as our admission criteria changes and programs expand. This also means more jobs as Mary Free Bed will need more therapists and clinical staff to treat patients.

Mary Free Bed is in the beginning stages of enhancing our research programs, so, as you may have heard us say recently, we can do more than administer cures, we can also discover them.

While Mary Free Bed offers intense rehabilitation for diagnoses of all kinds, we’ll soon be offering even more. Programs will expand to include oncology, pulmonology, and cardiology, just to name a few.

And, the hospital is adding some intense and cutting-edge therapeutic technology for patients. Mary Free Bed will be one of the first rehabilitation facilities in Michigan to offer patients robot-assisted walking therapy using the Lokomat^®. Check out that video!

LokomatPro Product Demo from Hocoma on Vimeo.

Also coming is the TheraStride™, a body weight support system for locomotor training. This new rehabilitation technology is based on the knowledge about the capacity of the spinal cord to develop new pathways and to recover a specific motor task, such as walking, by repetitive sensory input.

So long 2011, hello New Year!

There you have it: new era, new year, new beginnings. All of us at Mary Free Bed will see you in 2012 to continue our work on our new era.

Happy New Year and peace on Earth, friends. May you be overwhelmed with joy this holiday season.

Kordell's baclofen pump alleviates his symptoms of spasticity, making him more comfortable and allowing him more movement.

Thirteen-year-old Kordell Rodrigues has cerebral palsy. Seven years ago, he suffered from such severe spasticity that his body was like a stiff board, according to his grandmother, Debra Rodrigues. Doctors recommended that Kordell have a baclofen pump surgically implanted into his abdomen to alleviate his spasticity.

Debra said the decision to get the baclofen pump – a programmable device that delivers medication to relieve severe spasticity – was a measure of last resort for Kordell. At the time, the pump was a new treatment option. The pump did help relieve Kordell’s symptoms. Today, he is happier and able to sit in a wheelchair more comfortably.

Kordell was used to pain and having surgery, so he was not afraid to get the baclofen pump. Doctors had tried a tendon lengthening surgical procedure as well as Botox^® shots to loosen him up, but nothing had really helped him.

Debra had always known that her grandson’s spasticity made him uncomfortable and unable to move. What she didn’t know was how much pain it had caused him, too. Another patient at Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital who had the baclofen pump said the muscle spasms were like prolonged Charlie horses. Once Debra knew about the pain, she hoped the baclofen pump would let Kordell focus less on his pain and more on doing things and having fun.

“I had no idea what to expect,” Debra said of Kordell’s improved condition after getting the baclofen pump. “It’s so much better than what it could be.”

Although Kordell can’t communicate verbally, he interacts with people more than before. Most importantly to Debra, her grandson is happier.

Jesus's baclofen pump manages the spasticity that affects his whole body, making him more independent.

Jesus Corona and his adoptive mother, Corinna Corona, also decided to get the baclofen pump to manage Jesus’s spasticity. Jesus was born 4 months prematurely with spastic quadriplegia, which affects his whole body. The spasticity was once so severe that it was pulling Jesus’s bones from their sockets.

Doctors performed surgery on his hips two different times. Jesus was also taking oral baclofen medication 3 times a day before they decided to get the pump.

“It was overwhelming,” Corinna said of those efforts to control his spasticity. “It wasn’t really doing anything.”

The baclofen pump is different from oral medication because it injects medicine directly into the fluid around the spinal cord. Because the pump delivers a smaller dosage of medicine, patients may have fewer side effects than when taking oral medication.

“My goal was for him to be able to sit on his own without support,” Corinna said.

As for Jesus, he wasn’t scared about the procedure.

“He’s not afraid of anything,” Corinna said. “He was looking at it from a positive perspective.”

Jesus now has more control over his hands and is more independent. He brushes his teeth and dresses by himself. Corinna says that as a teenager, he is proud to be able to do things for himself. His main goal is to graduate from Fruitport middle school. In the meantime, Jesus enjoys playing the Wii, riding his bike, and swimming.

“He’s a today type of person,” Corinna said.

Both Kordell and Jesus are happy that they can enjoy being kids without their spasticity getting in the way.

Moving forward: Nicky Lewis finds her multiple sclerosis presents constant challenges, but her rehab and attitude allow her to adapt and keep living in the present.

by Chris Lewis

As a full-time social worker, Nicky Lewis has always placed the interests of others well before her own, grateful for the opportunity to regularly improve her patients’ lives.

Ironically, when diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) this past April, she suddenly became a patient herself.

Before her diagnosis, Nicky had experienced an array of usual MS symptoms, including dizziness and a lack of balance.

At first, she tried to ignore her symptoms, hoping they would eventually diminish.

Unfortunately, since MS is an autoimmune disease in which the myelin sheaths that surround the spinal cord and the brain’s axons are damaged extensively, leading to lesions and scarring, Nicky could not ignore her symptoms for long.

After receiving an official MS diagnosis, she was referred to Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital, where she began to receive physical and occupational therapy.

During her 10-day inpatient stay, she was offered a range of therapies.

“I was amazed by the facilities and therapies available to me,” Nicky said. “I never knew how incredible the facility was.”

To help relieve some of her MS symptoms, including reduced coordination and a lack of sensation in her extremities, Nicky was able to use various kinds of equipment, including adapted weight machines and hand bikes.

“As I was learning to use a wheelchair and forearm crutches, much of the therapy was focused on upper body strength and an increase in coordination,” Nicky said. “I learned to use equipment that allowed me to safely ambulate independently.”

For Nicky, the restoration of her independence was undoubtedly her ultimate goal and the main motive behind her numerous months of therapy.

“I desperately wanted to have my normal life back,” Nicky said. “I wanted my independence again. I was very upset by how much I had to rely on others to meet even my most basic needs.”

To ensure she would receive the greatest gift she could have asked for at the time – independence to live and work freely once again – hospital staff members taught her how to use equipment that would allow her some newfound mobility.

“I learned how to navigate my normal day-to-day activities while using these devices,” Nicky said. “Through regular rehab, and with the help of wheelchairs and other equipment, I can shop for groceries, prepare food, and enjoy a lot of the activities I used to.”

Aside from Mary Free Bed’s extensive assortment of equipment, Nicky also noticed the hospital staff’s friendliness and the ways in which each medical professional helped her throughout the recovery process.

“Everyone I met was so understanding and helpful,” Nicky said. “They were very patient and seemed to genuinely care about my recovery.”

As a result of her therapy, Nicky is still able to relish her career as a medical social worker at Saint Mary’s Health Care, while also working as an adjunct social work professor at Grand Valley State University.

When she is not helping her patients or preparing her students for their future careers, Nicky usually spends her free time educating others about her disease.

Whether she is writing a blog about life with MS or preparing for a future MS walk fundraiser to increase public awareness, Nicky continues to overcome all barriers established by the disease.

Although MS presents constant challenges to its sufferers, she encourages other patients to overcome their limitations as well.

“Focus on the present and live one day at a time,” Nicky said. “There will be difficult days, but life will always have challenges. I have chosen to adapt and move forward – and so can you.”

View Nicky Lewis’s blog at www.OtherSideOfTheRails.blogspot.com.

Healthy eating: With the help of Mary Free Bed's Pediatric Feeding Program, Cerelle has overcome her feeding issues and is now eating everything from apples to chicken and rice

by Molly Cartwright

Like many kids, Cerelle is a bit of a picky eater. She loves to eat cake and ice cream, but won’t eat salty foods, such as French fries.

For Lynn and Pat Pohl, Cerelle’s parents, the fact she wants to eat at all is something to celebrate. For the past 4 years Cerelle has been unable to eat anything but baby food.

Since she was a baby, Cerelle’s feeding issues made her unable to eat without gagging or vomiting. She has also suffered from speech, hearing, and sleep issues. At first, however, her pediatrician’s office wasn’t aware that feeding therapy programs existed. Because her feeding issues weren’t being addressed, Cerelle continued to struggle. Yet her parents remained determined to find help for their daughter.

Last March, Cerelle entered the Pediatric Feeding Program at Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital where she finally began to overcome her feeding issues.

For 4 months, occupational therapist Ellen Rosevear taught Cerelle how to eat. Because Cerelle had always been afraid of food, she had a lot to overcome. Ellen eventually gained Cerelle’s trust and showed her that food didn’t have to be scary.

“Food was always a horrific thing for her,” Lynn said. “She was always scared of food. Ellen went through a variety of things to make her not afraid … it really did help to take her fear away that the food wasn’t going to hurt her.”

Lynn, Pat, and their other children, Letti, Rhiannon, and Canaan (Cerelle’s twin brother), were equally important for Cerelle’s rehabilitation. They introduced Cerelle to new foods and encouraged her to be a good eater.

“All the kids would clap for her when she did something good,” Lynn said.

For years, the Pohls had encountered obstacle after obstacle when it came to finding help for Cerelle. Now that she’s thriving, they are just thankful that the answer to her problem was out there after all.

“Who knew it was in our backyard?” Lynn said.

Today, Cerelle is eating everything from chicken and rice to milk, and she continues to improve. She recently passed another milestone – eating at a restaurant with her whole family for the very first time.