Research has shown that the earlier a care team can get a recovering stroke patient up and moving, the better the overall outcomes will be. This fact proved true for 63-year-old stroke survivor Curt Burney. Madonna Rehabilitation Hospitals’ stroke experts, specialized technology, and Curt’s determination made for a winning combination in his recovery.
Curt had just returned home to Kansas City from a weekend visiting family in Omaha for Thanksgiving when he had a stroke. He was paralyzed on the right side.
“He left our place Sunday morning,” Tara Horn, Curt’s daughter, said. “Monday morning, he and I were texting about the weekend, and I got a call [that afternoon] from his neighbor saying he had a stroke outside his apartment. It was very scary.”
Curt spent four days in the intensive care unit at St. Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City before coming to Madonna on November 29.
“I was always one of those people that said, “Oh, that will never happen to me, and it did,” Curt said about his stroke. “The first two weeks, having to be moved around by other people, I just felt like a blob lying on the bed. I had to be carried into the bathroom, and you really get so low. You just wonder, is it worth the fight?”
Interdisciplinary collaboration drives outcomes
Tara had heard about Madonna and knew the intensity Madonna could provide was what her dad needed to get motivated. His physician-led care team hit the ground running. Kassi Pichler, PT, DPT, Curt’s physical therapist at Madonna, had him up and moving in the LiteGait body-weight support system on his second day of inpatient therapy.
“He couldn’t advance or stand on his right leg at all when I first met him, but we need to get people up out of bed to prevent secondary complications and rebuild those neuro-pathways,” Pichler said. “Curt didn’t quite have a center of balance, and he was a little bit too confident with his movement, but that also was a good indicator showing me that he was ready to work hard to reach those goals.”
Physical therapy collaborated with occupational and speech therapies to maximize Curt’s independence and strength.
“While his speech was impacted and we did work on his speech, we did a ton of physical things in speech therapy and emphasized that breath support,” Katie Johnson, MS, CCC-SLP, Curt’s speech-language pathologist, said. “One of the big ones that really helped with both physical therapy and speech was something we call expiratory muscle strength training. That is when the patient blows against resistance and you can increase the resistance over time. It’s a training program for respiratory control. It helped Curt’s speech. It also really was focusing on his core for postural stability, which influenced the walking.”
Pichler and Johnson also did several co-treatments with Curt to emphasize the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration.
“First, we did strengthening exercises seated, then we would do standing and then we got to where we were walking and talking in speech therapy under the direction of Kassi,” Johnson said. “We’d check with her about what’s safe and what technique is good.”
Curt’s progress continued to build with each session over the next two months. He went from needing someone else to move his right foot while walking to using an ankle foot orthosis and cane. He could navigate stairs, and his speech became clearer and louder. With this, his extroverted personality also began to shine. He would crack jokes with therapy and dish out the occasional sass.
As a customer service representative, Curt has spent the last 22 years talking for a living. Part of his speech therapy also involved discussions about the realistic possibility of lasting impacts from his stroke.
“Curt’s stroke did not affect his cognitive abilities, so we knew he had the safety; he had the reasoning,” Johnson said. “But, we did have a couple of tough conversations about, what if your speech continues to sound different in the long term? That was challenging for him to hear, but he was very motivated to practice. We did a lot of homework and we had a lot of discussion about how the things that we’re doing in therapy carry over into the other tasks that you do.”
Madonna offers stroke survivors a comprehensive continuum of care
Continuing into Madonna’s Rehabilitation Day Program, Curt’s speech improved with the use of the Visipitch to record and analyze the volume and clarity of his voice. He was also able to take steps without assistance.
Curt says the best thing about being in outpatient therapy is getting to go home to his bed in his apartment.
“Living independently by himself, that first day, I didn’t think that was ever going to be a possibility,” Tara said. “Now, four months later, he’s come a long way.”
Tara says the biggest blessing throughout this stroke recovery journey is that her dad retained his strong-willed, outgoing personality. At each milestone in his recovery, he got stronger and used it as motivation to reach his next goal.
“He’s been my dad through all of this,” Tara said. “He still has his sense of humor, so that’s been the greatest gift. He’s always been very stubborn, very hard-headed, very determined. That has made all the difference.”
Curt says he credits his recovery to the grace of God and the staff at Madonna.
“Everyone here, from day one, was so nice,” Curt said. “They made me feel like I was their friend and that got me through mentally. That was just as important as physically.”
He also acknowledged the hours of hard work he has put in throughout his recovery.
“The therapists will push you, but you have to want it yourself, too,” Curt said. “They can’t do it all, and if you go in with an attitude of ‘I’m going to do it,’ along with their professionalism, it works hand in hand.”