Why We Celebrate National Rehabilitation Awareness Week
 ational Rehabilitation Awareness Week, celebrated Sept. 13 through 19, provides a opportunity to focus attention on the powers and possibilities of medical rehabilitation. Through rehabilitation, people are able to overcome injury or illness.
 Rehab restores independence while providing the individual with the means to return to work, recreation, and family. The observance of rehabilitation awareness week salutes the determination of more than 49 million Americans with disabilities.
Two of those individuals tell what medical rehabilitation has meant to them.
Carswell Hughs, Senior Minister, First Presbyterian Church
I sustained a traumatic brain injury from a horseback riding accident five years ago. Even though my helmet saved my life, I suffered serious bleeding deep within my brain. After eight hours of neurosurgery my next two weeks were spent in the neuro intensive care unit at Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center.
When I transferred to Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center, I was unable to sit up, walk, or speak in more than a whisper. I could not feed myself, nor could I dress, shower, or take care of any personal needs. I was confused, anxious, and debilitated.
Two months of intensive, sometimes grueling, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and behavioral medicine, plus support from my family, friends, and church helped me regain lost ground. I left Patricia Neal with my physical abilities intact but continued in the Brain Injury Day Treatment Program for fine-tuning.
I returned to work four months after my injury blessed with a new appreciation for life, thankful for a medical speciality called rehabilitation and grateful for a place named for Patricia Neal.
Dr. Gregory Thomsen, vice president, Ortho/Neuro/Rehab, Covenant Health
I was an athletic 19-year-old college student, but a dive into a shallow lake broke my neck and rendered me quadriplegic some 30 years ago.
Had this happened 15 years earlier, it would be a story of lost hope. But in my case, it is a story of overcoming obstacles and reclaiming a great life…all made possible because of rehabilitation.
After my diving accident, I spent nine months in rehabilitation. I learned to use a wheelchair for mobility, to eat, to write, and to drive. I completed my education and today my wife, daughter, and I are active and involved in our church, community, and of course, UT sports.
As an employee of Covenant Health, I have seen many people with spinal cord, head injuries, or strokes complete our rehabilitation program at Patricia Neal. I am sure that before their crises, they, like Carswell and I, were unaware of the value of rehabilitation.
I am confident that we all would agree that without rehabilitation we would be sad stories of senseless loss and waste. But rehabilitation restored me, maybe not to my pre-accident body, but to a world full of potential, challenges, and joy, just as it has restored some 15,000 former patients of Patricia Neal.
Why do we celebrate National Rehabilitation Week? It is the way to rekindle hope and celebrate life following a disabling injury or illness.
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