Diagnosed with a paralyzing disease she’d never heard of, Dana Kidd’s first instinct was to google the name—Guillain-Barre’ Syndrome.
Only she couldn’t grasp her phone or even tap the touchscreen.
“I had no strength,” said the 48-year-old Meridian resident. “I could only listen to what everybody told me.”
And the news wasn’t good. Doctors said the neurological disorder might leave Kidd unable to walk for nine months or more.
Methodist Rehabilitation Center has announced 2018 Clinical and Support Service Employees of the Year for its Jackson hospital and external campuses.
The honorees include Leslie Taylor of Brandon, Supervisor of Therapy Services at MRC; Kathy Kendrick of Madison, Senior Programmer Analyst for Information Services at MRC; Heather Taylor of Brandon, a registered nurse at Methodist Physical Medicine; and Maxine Jackson of Pearl, a Dietary Services cook at Methodist Specialty Care Center.
Methodist Rehabilitation Center has announced Clinical and Support Service Employees of the Quarter for its Jackson hospital and external campuses.
For the second quarter of 2019, the honorees include Angelia Warner of Brandon, respiratory therapist at MRC; Terry Shingleton of Pearl, secretary for MRC’s neuropsychology department; Sheila Hinkle of Jackson, a licensed practical nurse at Methodist Specialty Care Center; and Abdul Muhammad of Jackson, security officer for MRC’s east campus in Flowood.
After over 25 years working with spinal cord injury patients at Methodist Rehabilitation Center, occupational therapist Bridgett Pelts knows there is little they can’t do when they set their minds to it.
That includes experiencing the joys of parenthood.
“It is no different for them as with anyone else who wants to have a child, they just have to know there will be challenges,” Pelts said. “They have to be willing to think a little bit differently and adapt the way they do things.”
Methodist Rehabilitation Center has announced Clinical and Support Service Employees of the Quarter for its Jackson hospital and external campuses.
For the fourth quarter of 2018, the honorees include Bridgett Pelts of Jackson, prospective payment system coordinator; Kathy Kendrick of Madison, senior program analyst; Felishia Davis of Brandon, respiratory therapist for Methodist Specialty Care Center; and Eloise Jones of Flora, inpatient billing representative.
As he winds up his two-year tenure as president of the American Spinal Injury Association, Dr. Keith Tansey of Ridgeland, Miss., can look back on a number of notable initiatives.
But he’s probably proudest of ASIA’s push to increase interactions between researchers who study spinal cord injury and the physicians who treat SCI patients.
As a neurologist who has a Ph.D. in spinal cord physiology, Tansey uniquely understands the potential of such collaborations. Indeed, it’s what brought the physician-scientist to Mississippi in 2016.
For Billy Joe Robinson, making the drive from his Starkville home to Methodist Orthotics & Prosthetics in Flowood has been worth it.
“I’ve always gone there, even though there were places closer to home, because they’ve been real good to me,” he said. “They’ve always helped me out in any way they could.”
Now, thanks to Methodist O&P’s dedication to bringing comprehensive services and care to patients across the state, that drive is about to get a lot shorter. The provider is set to open its seventh clinic in Starkville in early February.
John “Bones” Cossar has been flaunting his golf scorecard lately.
But it has nothing to do with proving whether he eagled, birdied or parred.
For Cossar, just making it to a tee box is evidence of an evolution he feared he’d never make. Just nine months ago, he couldn’t move a muscle, let alone swing a club.
“Every muscle in my body was paralyzed,” said the chairman emeritus of Mississippi Valley Title Insurance in Ridgeland. “I couldn’t wiggle a finger. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t swallow. I was on a breathing machine and a feeding tube.”
When John O’Neal’s lower right leg was amputated after a horse riding accident, the South Mississippi farmer struggled to manage his 400 acres.
He was basically crippled by an ill-fitting prosthesis.
Then he began seeing Larry Word at Methodist Orthotics & Prosthetics in Hattiesburg. “And it was a like new era for me,” O’Neal said.
“Larry made me a new leg, and that thing fit like a glove. I couldn’t even work with my other leg, and now I work seven days a week. As far as I’m concerned, Larry’s the best. I got nothing bad to say about him--except he left.”
Police officers go to work every day knowing that anything can happen. Just ask Bryam’s Sgt. Scott Lawrence.
“In August of 2016, I was involved in a police pursuit that ended in a crash and a fight with an armed robbery suspect,” he said. “During the fight, my neck got injured.”
But it would be a brain injury that put Lawrence in inpatient therapy at Methodist Rehabilitation Center, beginning a year-long road to recovery.
It happened after Lawrence elected for surgery to fix a herniated disc in his neck.