Retirement doesn’t mean slowing down for 73-year-old Randy Lamer. It simply means more time to do the things he enjoys, like biking and painting. But in June, while training for an upcoming road race, Randy was hit by a car. He sustained several broken bones and serious brain trauma in the accident. After two weeks at a South Dakota hospital, Randy came to Madonna Rehabilitation Hospitals Specialty Hospital. He required a tracheostomy and ventilator to breathe, and he had to wear a helmet to protect his brain following a craniotomy. Although he needed significant physical assistance, he was eager to get up and move.
His care team set goals focused on activating his muscles and improving his short-term memory.
“Initially, our goals were for him to tolerate transfers and being upright with sitting or standing in our standing frame,” Erin Reinhart, OTR/L, Randy’s occupational therapist, said. “Randy was extremely weak and had very minimal muscle activation in either of his arms. We hoped for some muscle return and improved command following and communication.”
To jumpstart his muscles, physical and occupational therapies got Randy on Madonna’s functional electrical stimulation (FES) bike. The pedaling movements were familiar to him, and it got his muscles firing. He used both arm and leg electrodes on the FES bike. With the return of some arm movements came more independence, like feeding himself and daily self-care activities.
As he got stronger and his balance improved, Randy participated in recreation therapy. Alannah DiBerardino, CTRS, Randy’s recreation therapist, incorporated his passions and hobbies into their goals.
“For individual sessions, I taught Randy new card games and did various artistic activities to work on that short-term memory,” DiBerardino said. “He was an art major in college so I knew we could tie art into his goals.”
DiBerardino says her favorite part of working with Randy was their shared love of Iowa Hawkeye football.
“Randy and I would make our weekly predictions of the Iowa football score,” DiBerardino said. “It was a fun way to work on short-term memory and ask him on Monday if our predictions were correct. We were usually wrong and laughed it off!”
Randy even took Madonna’s recumbent bicycle for a spin around the parking lot. Intending to return to his favorite pastime, he was eager to find new and adaptive ways to participate. He would bike around Madonna’s campus every Friday with recreation therapy.
After three months in Madonna’s Specialty Hospital, Randy transitioned to the Acute Rehabilitation Unit at the end of October. There, his therapy intensified, and he began using more technology. He started with the LiteGait bodyweight support system, and once he had mastered it, he progressed to the Andago to challenge his balance further.
“Randy is such a hard worker, always willing to attempt new things,” Haley Haefner, PTA, BS, a physical therapy assistant, said. “When given choices, he always picked the more difficult thing, and in his own words he said, ‘Because that was what’s going to get me home.’”
Never leaving Randy’s side was his wife of 54 years, Gloria. She set a few goals of her own. She told his care team the pair would walk out of Madonna hand in hand.
“Gloria helped him stay motivated, and having a familiar face around you does so much for someone’s recovery,” Haefner said. “Also with Gloria present, we could incorporate caregiver training throughout the entire rehabilitation stay so she felt more than prepared by the time they went home.”
Right before he left Madonna, Randy celebrated his hard work—and his birthday—with a special trip to Coldstone Creamery. Using the recumbent bike, Randy pedaled over to Village Pointe to indulge in his favorite treat. He says the ‘chocolate devotion’ flavor tasted even better than he remembered.
Finally, on November 16, Gloria and Randy achieved their shared goal. They walked out of Madonna hand in hand, ready to start the next chapter in his recovery journey. His care team says they’ll always remember that moment, and the feeling of joy to see how far Randy has come. Now back home in South Dakota, Randy hopes to take up more recumbent biking. He jokes that it should be easy to get back into his hobby, because, “as the saying goes, it’s just like riding a bike!”