As a farmer, Mark Pierret knows something about a hard day’s work. Growing up, he didn’t play sports. He only ever wanted to be out in the field with his dad or on a tractor. Farming to him is not just a passion, it’s his livelihood. So after sustaining serious brain trauma in a side-by-side utility vehicle accident, he set his sights on a return to work.
At first, that seemed like a lofty goal. The accident happened in July, and Mark was finally strong enough to start rehabilitation at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospitals’ specialized brain injury program in October.
“He was extremely deconditioned and had other injuries on top of his brain injury that made things slightly more complicated,” Kassi Pichler, PT, DPT, Mark’s physical therapist said. “His balance was poor because he was avoiding using his right side at all. A lot of that came from being in the hospital for so long. You learn a lot of compensation strategies that aren’t very useful.”
With his farming background, Mark eagerly put in the hard work in therapy. He and his care team set his goals high because he was young and active. Pichler knew that a wheelchair would not be conducive to his outdoor lifestyle. They needed to get him walking again. The first part of Mark’s rehab was spent retraining his leg muscles and teaching his brain he could trust that right side. Leaning on his motto, ‘Farm Boy Strong,’ Mark got stronger and more confident in walking with every step.
“We started with using our LiteGait machine, so some bodyweight support with walking, just to get the repetition,” Pichler said. “Once he figured out that his right leg could move and could do what he needed it to do, I actually put him on Madonna’s ICARE by SportsArt, because I wanted him to get used to shifting his weight over onto that right side. With the elliptical, you have to push through both legs symmetrically and that was a big thing.”
From there, Pichler upped the challenge and used the Andago, another bodyweight support device that allows a patient more freedom in controlling their balance and speed. With his family there every step of the way, Mark quickly progressed to walking independently.
“Mark’s mom, Rhonda, was here every day and was a big component in ensuring on the weekends or in the evenings when we weren’t here, she was carrying over all those therapy techniques that he was learning during the day,” Pichler said. “That allowed us to maximize our time in therapy and not repeat skills.”
In addition to his legs, Mark’s right arm and speech were impacted by his accident. He struggled with expressive aphasia and had extreme tone in his arm. Ronnie Clark, MOT, OTR/L, Mark’s occupational therapist, used electric stimulation to work on his range of motion on the right side. The functional electrical stimulation (FES) bike targeted his arm muscles, while the Bioness H200 focused on his grasp and release.
“Mark really challenged his therapists to keep pushing him harder and harder, going from needing someone to help him dress, to basically doing it by himself and telling other people how it needed to be done,” Clark said. “He knew he had a certain way that he liked things done. That was great. He was advocating for himself. We also worked on some one-arm dressing techniques, which he mastered quickly.”
Clark says Mark was always eager to get going in therapy. Sometimes, too eager.
“I had to rush to get that gait belt on him or he would walk out the door without me,” Clark said. “He was always so motivated to participate in therapy.”
Laughter is often said to be the best medicine, and for Mark, there was no shortage.
“With his aphasia, I think not being able to express things as he did before was really hard, but he had a talent in expressing things through his facial expressions,” Pichler said. “Every time we would do something new and I made it harder, he would always give me ‘the look.’ Like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding,’ and then we’d push forward. It was just really good that he was able to use his humor and his personality to work through the hard things in therapy.”
Mark’s mom, Rhonda, said that’s just the type of person her son is. Always quick with a joke, but also willing to do what is asked of him.
“People say the therapists push you, but I look at it as it’s a strong encouragement,” Rhonda said. “I think that’s probably the best, is his personality of, ‘I’m going to do this,’ and he cuts up with the therapists. They give it right back to him and that’s him. He enjoys that kind of interaction with them. The therapists will tell him what they’re going to have for him to do, and he’ll complain about it, but he likes to do that teasingly. They tease him right back and say, ‘Let’s get going!’”
When asked what keeps him motivated to work hard, Mark replied, ‘Farm.’ On his last day of therapy, he got to see his hard work pay off, as Pichler showed him he could climb steps and get back in a tractor using Madonna’s Independence Square to simulate the task.
“Everything we do is about quality of life,” Pichler said. “Mark’s quality of life is going back to a farm, being on a tractor, being with his daughter. There was no shortage of sweat that Mark put out every single day to achieve his goals, so to get to that point where he could climb up those tractor steps and see that life goal achieved was really encouraging.”
At the top of the tractor steps, Mark’s care team presented him with a Madonna Spirit Award for all his hard work.
“Never in my life have I experienced anything so hard,” Rhonda said. “As parents, we would switch places with him in a heartbeat if we could but we can’t. So, we stand by his side and help him in every way we can. We get him the best rehabilitation we can, and we did with Madonna Rehabilitation Hospitals. This place is so amazing. Their dedication to their patients is out of this world! It is top-notch care!”
Rhonda says it’s bittersweet moving on to the next phase in Mark’s recovery journey, but recognizes the progress her son has made. Every day, he’s one step closer to getting back on his tractor, and that’s what keeps them all going.