SOME DON’T LET INJURIES KEEP THEM FROM TAKING GIANT STEPS
Persistence, diligence and hard work are making great strides at Project Walk in Beaverton.
The nonprofit recovery center is helping people with devastating spinal cord injuries gain greater independence, improve their health and regain control of movements in their body.
“I’m a lot stronger and a lot more independent,” said Kip Johnson, who participates in an intense exercise-based recovery program offered by the team at Project Walk. “I keep pushing forward and the improvements come little by little every week.”
The 22-year-old college student injured his C5-6 Vertebrae in a skiing accident four years ago when he crashed and slid into a tree. A year after his injury, he began training sessions with Project Walk’s international center in Carlsbad, Calif.
When the Beaverton center opened its doors in June 2006 at 9923 S.W. Arctic Drive, Johnson was one of its first clients.
Since then, he has served as ambassador for the program, reaching out to hope to others healing from similar spinal cord injuries at Legacy Emmanuel Children’s Hospital in Portland.
“I try to let people know that life isn’t over,” Johnson said. “There is still a lot of stuff they can do. Even though they are in a chair now, it is not the end.”
Clients at Project Walk are proving that spinal cord injuries do not always mean a life in a wheelchair and that recovery is possible, said Nat Willis, facility business manager at the Beaverton center.
Many of our clients are told that they won’t heal below the injury site, but we are seeing gains in function,” he said. “Where we’ve seen the biggest gains is when clients come to us right after they leave the hospital.
“We’ve found that our clients have greater independence, less reliance on medication, better overall health and increased bone
Density, muscle mass and circulation.”
They are also less susceptible to bladder infections, pressure sores and other ailments.
Clients work one-on-one with a recovery specialist three times a week at the Beaverton center. For two to three hours clients are out of their wheelchairs and working every muscle of their body.
“Each workout is specifically designed for our clients with their strengths and weaknesses in mind,” said Jerod Warf, lead certified spinal cord injury recovery specialist. “We try to bridge the gap between what they have and what they want.”
Project Walk specialists follow the Dardzinski Method, working with clients through five phases of recovery. In every workout, trainees focus on stimulating the Central Nervous System
From the Internet –ed GRANT RECIPIENT GETS NEW WHEELCHAIR
By Sara Buscher
Jeremy Shortsleeve has put a lot of miles on the wheelchair he has used since he was injured in a motorcycle accident in June 2005.
It’s banged up from being broken down, dragged across the concrete and put into the car daily as Shortsleeve travels to work, graduate school and Physical Therapy appointments, he said. It’s also heavy.
“A wheelchair is just like a car. If it breaks or you pop a tire, you’re out of luck,” Shortsleeve said.
Though his insurance policy would cover a portion of the cost of another chair, it would also limit his options, Shortsleeve said. When he heard about the Travis Roy Foundation for spinal cord injury survivors, he applied for a grant to buy a new chair, and got one.
Established in honor of Travis Roy, who suffered a paralyzing injury while playing hockey at Boston University, the nonprofit has distributed more that $1.3 million in grants to individuals and to research projects and to Rehabilitation institutions across North America since 1997. The money has been used to modify vans and to purchase wheelchairs, computers, ramps, shower chairs, and other adaptive equipment to help paraplegics and quadriplegics.
Thanks to a $4, 124 grant from the foundation, Shortsleeve expects to receive a new, lightweight chair this week.
The motorcycle accident that changed Shortsleeve’s life occurred just before 7 a.m. June 30, 2005.
“I knew it was bad, seeing my parents as I was going into surgery. I knew even when I was in the road. There was nothing: I couldn’t feel anything,” he said. Shortsleeve suffered an incomplete fracture of an L-1 vertebra in his
