Notice of Change Healthcare Incident: Details here!

OPPD Lineman demonstrates grit and resilience in GBS recovery

Danko Pike’s job requires physical fitness and mental toughness. The lineman has been with Omaha Public Power District for 27 years. He’s faced towering heights and severe weather but he put his gritty mentality to the test after doctors diagnosed him with Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) in November 2024.

Doctors believe a bout with pneumonia led to Danko’s GBS. He spent three weeks at the University of Nebraska Medical Center where his body became so weak he lost 64 pounds and needed a ventilator to breathe.

“With pneumonia, they said your body can fight for you or fight against you and the Guillain-Barre fought against me,” Danko said.

But Danko was also ready for a fight. He came to Madonna Rehabilitation Hospitals determined to regain his strength and stamina. A special welcome organized by his colleagues at OPPD and Madonna got him in the right mindset for rehab. A crew of 20 individuals set up an archway for Danko’s car to drive through using their line trucks and an American flag. The tradition is usually used at funerals, but Danko’s co-workers say they were honored to celebrate their friend while he’s alive.

“When I got here, I saw the trucks and all my co-workers waiting for me; [it was] very emotional,” Danko said. “We are a brotherhood and they showed they had my back.”

With that boost of moral support, Danko got right to work. On his first day of physical therapy, he was too fatigued to transfer from his wheelchair back to his bed, but he still had lofty goals.

“The first real day of therapy, he said, ‘I want to be able to walk with the walker in the hallway by the end of the week so I have something to do over the weekend,’” Jill Schott, PT, DPT, Danko’s physical therapist said. “It was very cool to see him want to work hard and get to where he needed to be.”

Schott used several pieces of specialized technology to build back muscle in Danko’s legs. She started with the LiteGait bodyweight support system. As he improved in maintaining his balance, she transitioned him to the Andago over-ground gait training system and Madonna’s ICARE by SportsArt, a motorized elliptical.

“Every day that we saw him was something new,” Schott said. “He was able to do something he wasn’t able to the day before so we had to get creative in how to challenge him.”

For Danko, pushing himself in therapy came naturally.

“I’ve always gone to the gym and been athletic, so I just treated this like I was going to the gym every day,” Danko said. “When they wanted me to do something, I was in my mind I wanted to do more than they wanted me to do so I could progress faster.”

Physical therapy focused on his leg strength and coordination, and occupational therapy focused on stamina and endurance by having him navigate Madonna’s Independence Square grocery store and participate in the Work Re-Entry program.

“His job at OPPD requires a lot of higher-level balance, coordination, and climbing up to heights, so I really wanted to incorporate some of those skills into his therapy to make it relevant and to challenge him as well,” Kayleigh Stremel, OTD, OTR/L, Danko’s occupational therapist, said. “Everything that I threw at him, he then matched it and exceeded it, so [he was] such a great patient to work with because no matter what, he was ready to work.”

Danko says a key part of his recovery was that he never faced therapy alone. Every day, his wife, daughter, co-workers, and friends would join him to cheer him on and encourage him. With their support, he could mentally focus on getting better physically. Peer volunteer Steve Scott, who also recovered from GBS at Madonna, also stopped by to show Danko he could get through it.

“I think so much of a person’s progress is due to the people around them, and he had the most supportive wife, daughter, and co-workers,” Stremel said. “He had friends in his room every single day cheering him on, but most importantly, Danko wanted it for himself. Not one second did he ever feel sorry for himself. He took everything that we suggested and did it tenfold.”

Based on his GBS research, Danko said he had prepared himself for a recovery of six months to a year, but he could walk out of Madonna unassisted in less than two weeks. He’s now back to his daily gym sessions and is looking to return to work as early as the end of January.

“This taught me I have a lot of love and support,” Danko said. “It’s still kind of a blur, just looking back and thinking I was on a ventilator and what my wife and daughter had to go through to see me like that. I’m glad that Madonna had an open room for me because there’s no other place I’d rather have been. The therapists got me walking again and strong enough to go home and live a normal life.”