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Kendarious Greenwood had been hospitalized for a month. Thirty long days in the hospital were taking a toll on the Canton native. Greenwood felt like the walls of his hospital room were starting to close in on him. The 24-year-old National Guardsman’s body was broken, weak and struggling to fight infection. He wanted to see more progress, and there was just one thing in his way—his left leg. 

Miller King of Greenwood had one thing running through his mind as rescuers raced to remove him from his crumpled tractor cab on Feb. 15.

“Keep breathing. You’ve got to get back to them.”

King was thinking of his wife and three kids, and whether he’d survive being hit from behind by a 1-ton, dually truck pulling a gooseneck equipment hauler.

Michael Chambless of Brandon remembers nothing of his 23 days in ICU fighting COVID.

But he does recall his brother, Danny, telling him how bad it had been. “He said he’d take a COVID booster every month to avoid having COVID like I did,” said the 60-year-old.

“The last day I was on a vent, the doctor told my sister I had a 50-50 chance. They were already making plans for my funeral.”

Ever since he lost his right leg at hip level, Michael Savage has embraced every breakthrough in the field of prosthetic limbs.

So he welcomed the chance to receive the first Ossur Next Generation Power Knee to be fitted and delivered in Mississippi.

As part of a global launch of the prosthetic knee at Methodist Orthotics and Prosthetics in Flowood, Savage praised its one-of-a-kind, built-in motor. Since he has no hip or upper leg muscles to power a prosthesis, the motor provides the force to keep him moving.

Every time she fell and didn’t hurt herself, 71-year-old Sara Batia of Brandon brushed off her balance problems.

Then a dizzy spell on her front porch caused a brain-rattling fall.

“I ended up with a concussion,” she said. And the retired nurse realized she couldn’t ignore her unsteadiness any longer.

“I was getting more afraid,” she said. “My mom had two friends die from falls.”

ER nurse Tiffany Wilson of Brandon thought she knew what to expect after being diagnosed with a virulent form of breast cancer on April 12.

But the triple whammy of chemo, radiation and a double mastectomy ravaged her body in ways she never imagined. The normally active 48-year-old spent weeks barely able to move.

“I couldn’t do anything. I wasn’t even able to lie down flat,” she said. “It was like someone wrapped barb wire around my chest and was tightening it. It was unbearable, and I have a pretty high pain tolerance.”

Since he lost his legs in an auto accident, Hank Graham’s life has been full of ups and downs.  He has been in and out of physical rehab facilities, had multiple surgeries, experienced some setbacks, even weathered personal tragedy.  Still, his belief he would walk again rarely wavered.

And with the staff at Methodist Rehabilitation Center, he found a team of specialists who believed in him, too.

Dr. Jennifer Villacorta can’t say she ever saw herself as a medical director.

“They are usually older, and I’m still wearing headbands,” she joked.

But when she was offered the position at Methodist Rehabilitation Center, the spinal cord injury specialist decided to “step up to it.”

“After being on the front lines as a physician, I realize there is so much you can do for patients and the medical team when you have a voice. And that’s what I’m excited about.”