PEARL—Playing charades used to be a never-ending pastime for Gayle and Ken Heckman.
She would gesture, and he would guess what she was trying to say. It’s how the Pearl couple communicated after a 1993 stroke left Gayle struggling to speak or write.
Now the Heckmans are happy to report that there’s a new game in town. Today, Gayle just taps a touch screen to tell Ken everything from “I love you” to “the plants need watering.”
LAUREL—Wheelchair user Drenda Barrett used to fear a literary avalanche every time she grabbed a book off an overhead shelf.
“I’ve pulled books down on my head a time or two – and some of our books are not light,” said the Laurel librarian.
So there’s no disguising her delight with a new power wheelchair that allows safe access to the library’s loftiest perches.
JACKSON, Miss.—The Board of Governors of the Wilson Research Foundation, the fundraising arm of Methodist Rehabilitation Center in Jackson, announced today the election of three new board members: Sam Lane and Dick Molpus of Jackson, and John D. (Dave) Robinson of Ridgeland.
KEMPER COUNTY, Miss.—After a season of cheerleading for the Kemper County High School football team, Kristy Grace should have been in the best shape of her life.
But as the Christmas holidays neared, the 16-year-old noticed a strange weakness in her extremities. “My legs would flap when I walked, and I noticed my feet were numb,” she said. “Then the right side of my hand and fingers got numb and tight, and I couldn’t write.”
JACKSON, Miss.—Critical self-care strategies will soon be a few clicks away for spinal cord injury (SCI) patients in Mississippi.
Methodist Rehabilitation Center is putting the information online, thanks to a $47,696 grant from the Mississippi Paralysis Association (MPA).
MPA Executive Director Natalie Ellis of Clinton said the money will fund the Jackson hospital’s eTHANKS project, a Web-based program that will serve as a ’round-the-clock resource for SCI patients striving to stay healthy.
MONROE, La.—Its official name is the Otto Bock Reciprocating Gait Orthosis, which is too much of a mouthful for 5-year-old Michael Johnson Jr. of Monroe.
So he calls his new trunk-to-heel brace system his “Batman suit.” The name reflects Michael’s fascination with super heroes, but this suit’s “powers” aren’t just make-believe. When the partially paralyzed youngster wears the braces, he can walk.
RAYMOND, Miss.—Carol Anderson is careful to spell out w-a-l-k when she’s around her Rat Terrier, Brussels Griffon and two Chihuahuas. She doesn’t want to get their hopes up yet.
But the day is near when she’ll once again take Lucy, Sadie, Emma and Annie on a romp around her Raymond neighborhood. After years of being hobbled by a severely injured ankle, Anderson is reclaiming her active lifestyle with the help of an artificial limb.
LELAND, Miss.—As Matt Azlin begins a play-by-play of his Nov. 13 farm accident, his wife Katherine gently hustles their two kids out of earshot.
Hayes, 5, and Josie, 18 months, don’t need to hear the gruesome details. They already know how Daddy lost his lower right leg. And if the truth be known, they handled the news better than most adults. “When we first told Hayes about the amputation, he said: ‘Cool, Daddy is going to be a pirate,’ ” Katherine said. “He even wanted to take my artificial leg to school for share day,” Matt said.
RICHLAND, Miss.—In the tree trimming business, warning shouts mean one thing: Run for your life.
“When someone hollers your name, you don’t look,” says Mike McNair of Richland. “You move and then look.”
He tried as much on Nov. 10, but didn’t move fast enough. One short step from safety, he got clobbered by 800 pounds of Southern pine.
“It was a freak accident,” said the owner of McNair Tree Service. “A tree I cut fell on another tree lying on the ground and it bounced up and hit me.”
RIDGELAND, Miss.—Free health screenings, fitness demos, complimentary refreshments and door prizes will be available at a community health fair scheduled for 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. Sept. 10 at Fitness Lady, 331 Sunnybrook Road in Ridgeland.
Staff of the Methodist Rehabilitation Center therapy clinic housed inside Fitness Lady will be on hand to answer questions and offer screenings for blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol, balance, grip strength and foot problems. Physical therapists also will provide free chair massages.