“When I met Attiah (Tia) she was a 19-year-old bilateral above knee amputee starting the home health portion of her rehabilitation process. She had already spent months in the hospital and rehabilitation facilities trying to heal her internal wounds from a car accident caused by another young man’s negligent driving.
When I would arrive for our physical therapy sessions, Tia would struggle with being a typical teenager who wanted to sleep in, often saying comments like ‘let’s just cuddle in bed and nap through therapy.’
But she knew within the next hour I would have her push herself to her limits doing things such as floor transfers, standing on her residual limbs, and making her way up 15 steps on her butt to her old bedroom and bathroom. Up to this point, Tia had not been given the chance to push herself as hard as she could because she was not healed. She has had a total of over 30 surgeries during the course of her healing process.
We worked together for several months as she awaited her wounds to heal enough for her to receive her prosthesis’s and move on to outpatient therapy.
She is now 21 years old and is still working in physical therapy to progress towards her permanent prosthesis’s. She continues to have a long road ahead of her, but will eventually work towards her culinary degree that she started prior to the accident.”
How This Patient Has Inspired This Physical Therapist:
“Tia inspired me to be a better therapist by finding different ways to push her, both physically and mentally. She pushed herself through the hardest part of therapy when she was struggling with depression and asking “Why me?”. She never let negative thoughts get in the way of what her future holds for her. Tia always held her head high and was not afraid to share her story and show her scars. She began a blog and openly shared her thoughts, feelings and pictures throughout her journey.
Her journey is not over, this week she is facing her fears and learning to drive again, with hand petals. For the longest time she was scared to be in a car, and now she is facing that fear by learning to drive. She has high hopes for her life and will not stop until she exceeds her own expectations. She overcame all obstacles and was able to achieve a lifelong dream of traveling to Disney World this spring. She can and will accomplish anything she puts her mind to.”
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