“You’ll never walk again.”
Ed Williams couldn’t fathom what the doctor was telling him. Having survived a three-hour emergency surgery to repair a dissected aortic aneurysm, Ed was grateful to be alive, but his legs were paralyzed. It was a devastating diagnosis.
“We were stunned,” said his wife, Joanne.
The man who worked for 48 years as a mechanic for a coal mining company and had the upper body strength to show for it — the man who took care of so much around his Pottsville, Pennsylvania, home and loved tinkering in his garage — was now facing the prospect of a spinal cord injury and being wheelchair-reliant for the rest of his life. He was only 67 years old.
But Ed Williams does not give up that easily. He beat prostate cancer in 2021, and Ed was determined to prove the doctors wrong. He found just the partners he needed at Good Shepherd Rehabilitation, where his team of inpatient and outpatient experts not only gave him hope, they got him on his feet and walking again.
A Life-Changing Event
It was January 2022, and for three days, Ed struggled with a relentless stomach pain. When the pain became unbearable, Joanne rushed Ed to the emergency room of their local hospital. An aortic aneurysm quickly became a life-threatening situation, and Ed was airlifted to an acute-care hospital in Allentown, Pa. Joanne followed in her car with her daughter and son-in-law.
“He was in critical condition,” Joanne said. “Then when Ed said he couldn’t feel his legs, they immediately operated. The artery had burst. When he came out more than three hours later, the doctor told me he saved Ed’s life, but he would never walk again.”
After 37 years of marriage, Ed and Joanne were confronted with a daunting and uncertain future.
“It was life changing,” Joanne said. “A million things were going through my mind. What were we going to do? How was I going to handle it?”
Ed spent four weeks in the acute-care hospital before being discharged to Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Hospital on the advice and referral of his doctors.
“That’s where they wanted him to go,” Joanne said. “We really didn’t know anything about Good Shepherd.”
That was about to change.
“They gave him that determination because they had faith in him. And then, he got faith in himself, and he told me, ‘I’m going to walk again.’”
Finding Hope
Though about 50 miles away from home, Ed and Joanne quickly came to know, and love, Good Shepherd.
Ed’s considerable upper body strength allowed him to transfer in and out of bed with a board, and he could maneuver his wheelchair and perform basic everyday toiletries, like brushing his teeth and washing his face. His legs were a different story. Robbed of his lower extremity strength, Ed was unable to put any weight on his legs.
But a new chapter with a different ending was about to be written with the compassionate expertise of Good Shepherd’s inpatient rehabilitation team.
“They were the ones who first tried to get me to walk,” Ed said.
The team of doctors, nurses, therapists and more emboldened Ed to not stop.
“Ed told me, ‘If they’re willing to help me, I’m going to go for it,’” Joanne said. “They gave him that determination because they had faith in him. And then, he got faith in himself, and he told me, ‘I’m going to walk again.’”
Ed’s team focused on manipulating his legs in different ways, including pushing him to work out on a stationary bicycle. Ed’s determination led to more and more progress.
“They got me walking with a walker and the help of three therapists,” Ed said. “In the beginning, they had to pick up my feet and move them a few inches. If I had a good day, maybe I’d go 20 feet. Other days, I could only go five feet. But they were giving me hope.”
Rehabilitation Care Close to Home
When Ed had progressed enough to go home to Pottsville, he continued outpatient therapy with Good Shepherd.
“He didn’t want to leave Good Shepherd [Rehabilitation Hospital],” Joanne said. “He really loved it there. But fortunately, there was an outpatient site in Pottsville. We were thrilled.”
Physical Therapist Assistant David Humenansky, PTA, said Ed was one of the Pottsville team’s more complex cases. However, that complexity gave Ed’s physical therapy team an opportunity to implement techniques they learned in a high-intensity gait-training course.
“He was wheelchair-reliant and unable to stand or walk,” David said. “We did pretty much everything on the mat table for the first two months. He really had no lower extremity function at all.”
Ed’s left leg was weaker than his right. He wore leg braces and molded orthotics on his feet and ankles for support. With the help of two or three team members, Ed started standing in the parallel bars to begin building his strength and stamina. Gradually, he worked his way to walking with assistance and someone following him with his wheelchair.
Once he was up, able to stand and bear weight for longer periods of time, the team started putting ankle weights on him for walking. Then, they gave Ed a vest to wear with up to 40 pounds of weight; it helped promote weight-bearing through his legs.
“That vest really helped me,” Ed said. “It worked wonders for strengthening my legs.”
“To see someone like that come in, unable to stand, to being able to now walk close to three-quarters of a mile, about 4,000 steps, with just his walker and no other assistance, has been nothing short of inspiring to the staff and to our other patients.”
Building Strength and Confidence
As his strength and confidence grew, so did Ed’s progress. Ed started going outside for his rehabilitation, where he walked on even and uneven surface types. It challenged him, both cognitively and physically.
“That made me think because they were teaching me that when I moved, I had to tell my brain to move my foot,” Ed said.
A new set of dynamic braces allowing greater flexibility in Ed’s foot and ankle were “a game-changer,” making it easier for Ed to get in and out of his wheelchair and walk — reducing the risk of falling.
For 18 months, Ed diligently applied himself.
“To see someone like that come in, unable to stand, to being able to now walk close to three-quarters of a mile, about 4,000 steps, with just his walker and no other assistance, has been nothing short of inspiring to the staff and to our other patients,” David said.
While Ed continues to use his wheelchair and walker, he is grateful to Good Shepherd for helping him accomplish what he once was told would never happen: walk.
“I always tell anybody I hear who needs therapy to go to Good Shepherd,” Ed said.
Ed’s daily workouts at home on a stationary bike and lifting weights keep him motivated to achieve even greater independence. His goal is walk with just a cane and get back to working on projects in his garage.
Joanne is looking forward to that day, too.
“I sure could use him on my car,” she said with a laugh. “I keep reminding him that he could have 20 years or more left, so he needs to get going. I can’t afford 20 years of paying a mechanic!”