The question came two days after Christmas and it sent Shanna Cumberland to her knees.
“Would you like to donate your daughter’s organs?”
It had been seven days since 20-year-old Brianna May had fallen headfirst off her horse, and Cumberland thought her comatose daughter was holding her own.
But Brianna was showing signs of brain death, said her doctors. It was time for family and friends to say good-bye.
“We thought we had lost her,” Cumberland said. “We were planning for her funeral.”
Eight-year-old D.J. Watkins was at Methodist Rehabilitation Center when he saw a poster from the hospital’s Now I Can campaign.
It showed once paralyzed Hollie Harvey walking along a park path with her husband and three children. And the story it told sent D.J. racing to the room where his 33-year-old father lay paralyzed from a stroke.
“It gave me hope my dad would get better,” D.J. said. “I told him you’re going to be OK. You’re going to be like those people on the wall.”
Everything in the room was familiar, yet nothing was the same.
That’s how physical therapist Gary Heine felt as he entered the sixth floor therapy gym at Methodist Rehabilitation Center.
All around were the usual tools of his trade. Exercise bikes for patients to pedal. Colorful balls to lift and throw. Mat tables to stretch out on. Even a small set of stairs to climb.
Yet despite 32 years as a PT—including 18 leading Mississippi Baptist Medical Center’s rehab department—Heine felt like a nervous newbie as he took in his surroundings.
Baptism is a sacrament and rite of passage for many people of faith.
But for Charles Ball, a Baptist, his chosen denomination’s doctrine of full immersion presented a challenge.
“I had made up my mind to get baptized before I came here,” said Ball, 36, who recently became a resident of Methodist Speciality Care Center, a long-term care facility for people with severe disabilities. “But we never could figure out how to go about doing it until recently.”
Linda Tynes’ heart is as soft as the comfy throws that she loves to crochet.
So when she learned how her handiwork could help ease the pain of people in distress, she couldn’t wait to get started.
Today, the Brandon resident is a proud member of Sisters Sharing Love, a group that ministers to others through the gift of handmade prayer shawls and lap blankets.
Alexa Cacibauda doesn’t remember much about the accident.
It was December 30, 2013, and she was on her way to Walmart to pick up supplies for a New Year’s party. While turning onto U.S. 90 in her hometown of Ocean Springs, she was hit by a motorist who ran a red light and plowed into the left side of her car.
She hit her head so hard it smashed the driver’s side window.
On Shaquille Vance’s road to the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Methodist Orthotics & Prosthetics has been with him literally every step of the way.
An above-the-knee amputee from a football injury, Vance has been competing in track and field events since 2010 with the use of a prosthetic leg made especially for sprinters known as a “cheetah.” The Flowood clinic fit him with the device and has been providing the athlete with sponsorship and clinical support ever since.
Adrian Benson’s new ride recently caused some rubber-necking as he whizzed through the parking lot of Methodist Rehabilitation Center’s Assistive Technology Clinic in Flowood.
People don’t expect a wheelchair to have a chopper-style front fork or reach speeds of 12 miles per hour.
But the innovative design suits Benson’s active lifestyle.
Dr. Stuart A. Yablon of Madison has rejoined the staff of Methodist Rehabilitation Center in Jackson as medical director for the brain injury program. He is board certified in brain injury medicine and physical medicine and rehabilitation and was project medical director of the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research Traumatic Brain Injury Model System of Mississippi from 1998 to 2007.
As he visited his brother, Chris Green, at Methodist Rehabilitation Center, Blake Ganzerla never noticed the colorful fabric bags hanging on the backs of patients’ wheelchairs.
The 10-year-old was too focused on helping Chris overcome a traumatic brain injury.
But six years later, the Madison teen is all about keeping the bags in production. As his Eagle Scout project, he launched a drive to supply donated fabric to the volunteers who make the coveted carryalls.