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A
year ago, Alonso Delfino never imagined where he would be today,
standing straight up and walking.
“I didn’t think I would walk again,” Alonso explains. “It’s
unbelievable where I am now.”
After years of intense headaches, complicated by numbness that
extended along his right side, Alonso was at his wit’s end. He had
problems sitting up straight, grasping simple utensils, and even turning
a key in his truck’s ignition. Area doctors were unable to diagnose the
problem — until a fall brought him to Methodist Health System.
There, doctors discovered a schwannoma, a tumor compressed
against the spinal cord. After surgery to remove the tumor, Benjamin
Newman, MD, neurosurgeon with the Methodist Brain and Spine
Institute, referred Alonso to Methodist Rehabilitation Hospital,
located just down Wheatland Road from Methodist Charlton
Medical Center.
“Rehabilitation is as important as competent surgery,” Dr. Newman
says. “At Methodist Rehabilitation Hospital, they take an integrative,
thorough approach to the patient to formulate and execute an
appropriate treatment plan. With good rehabilitation, patients like
Alonso definitely have the potential to make a dramatic recovery.”
The real power behind rehabilitation
Methodist Rehabilitation Hospital offers medical rehabilitation
to people with disabling conditions like stroke, brain trauma, and
complex orthopedic surgeries.
“The real power in rehabilitation is our interdisciplinary approach
to patient care,” says Peter Rappa, MD, medical director at Methodist
Rehabilitation Hospital. “Each patient has a team of specialists
working together to ensure the best recovery possible.”
For Alonso, the rehabilitation team put together a program of
care that included education, life skills, rehabilitation care, and
medical care.
Within two weeks, Alonso had gone from completely paralyzed to
moving his arms and walking with the parallel bars. Two weeks later,
when he was released as an outpatient, he could walk supported by
only a gait belt. By the end of two months as an outpatient, he could
walk by himself. In less than a year, he was back to life as he knew it.
“It was like being born again — every day I got better and better,”
Alonso says. “They called me the miracle patient.”
Most of all, Alonso is grateful for the compassionate care he
received from the doctors, nurses, therapists, and staff at Methodist
Rehabilitation Hospital.
“They went above and beyond to help,” he says. “Because of them,
the miracle did happen. They made the difference.”
REHABILITATION
‘The
miracle
patient’
“I didn’t think I would walk
again It’s unbelievable where
I am now ”
— Alonso Delfino (above)
Alonso Delfino thought he'd never walk again,
but the rehab team had other plans in mind
THE SOONER THE BETTER
Rehabilitation should be as timely as possible Dr Rappa says The sooner
rehabilitation begins the better the recovery For a referral to Methodist
Rehabilitation Hospital call
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Methodist Charlton Medical Center
•
Summer 2015
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