CentraState - Healthy Directions

BY EARLY FALL 2015, BIJAL GANDHI HAD BEEN GOING TO PHYSICAL THERAPY SESSIONS AT CENTRASTATE'S OCEANFIRST REHABILITATION CENTER THREE TIMES A WEEK FOR ABOUT NINE MONTHS. SHE HAD PROGRESSED FROM HER WHEELCHAIR TO STANDING ON HER OWN TO WALKING WITH A WALKER. W hile she had been making "unbelievable" progress, her therapists didn't fully realize at the time how remarkable it was for Bijal to be taking steps again, says physical therapist Shannon Lenahan, PT, DPT. "We were talking about how much progress she had made, and Bijal said, 'Not bad for someone who wasn't supposed to walk again,'" Lenahan recalls. "I said, 'Wait, what? You never told us that.'" She had never told them because after suffering a near-fatal heart condition, spending two months in the hospital and losing the ability to move her legs, she was completely driven to do whatever it took to walk again. "I've been told that I'm very hard on myself—I always want to be five steps ahead of where I am in my recovery," says Bijal, a 46-year-old mother of two from Plainsboro. "But when I started to realize how everyone around me was just completely flabbergasted by my recovery, it hit me how far I had come." A NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE Bijal woke up one morning in late March 2014 feeling so weak that she couldn't get herself out of bed to get ready for her job as a chief of staff at a large bank in Jersey City. Her husband took her to an emergency room, where doctors found she had a dangerously slow heart rate of 38. She was transferred to a hospital in Philadelphia where doctors determined she was suffering from myocarditis—a dangerous inflammation of the heart wall caused by a viral infection. The condition weakened her heart to the point where it briefly stopped beating. She had to be put on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO)—a form of life support that uses a pump to circulate blood through an artificial lung back into the bloodstream. She was on life support for 16 days, during which time she suffered a host of complications, including bleeding in her brain and damage to part of her spinal cord caused by inadequate blood supply. "When I regained consciousness, I realized that I was unable to move my legs," she says. "I had feeling in my legs, but no movement—the motor skills were gone." A JOURNEY THROUGH REHAB Bijal spent two months in that hospital, where she says her doctors "told my family there's a good chance I would stay in a wheelchair for the rest of my life." She spent five more weeks in a rehabilitation hospital before going home and beginning outpatient rehabilitation at a center in northern New Jersey. Feeling like she had reached a plateau in her rehabilitation, and looking for a center closer to home, she transferred her care to CentraState's OceanFirst Rehabilitation at the end of December 2014. "I had done a lot of research on rehabilitation centers, and when we came to visit CentraState, it just clicked," Bijal says. "I was excited about the staff's level of enthusiasm and about some of the advanced equipment that they had." She was particularly impressed with CentraState's aquatic therapy program, which is the largest aquatic therapy center in New Jersey. Aquatic therapy uses water to minimize the effects of gravity and stress on the body so a patient can move easily. The program includes a submerged treadmill, a junior Olympic-size lap pool, and a therapy pool. At the start of her aquatic therapy, Bijal couldn't even lift a leg in the water, she says. BACK ON LAND As Bijal's legs became stronger, she progressed to walking on an underwater treadmill where she focused on relearning how to walk. The underwater cameras allowed her to see her legs to improve her steps. She gradually transitioned to doing more exercises out of the water, taking advantage of all of CentraState's rehabilitation services, including: • Working with multispecialty trained therapists who have years of experience making a true difference in the lives of their clients through caring, personalized treatment sessions. • Exercising on state-of-the-art equipment. Bijal's workout regiment includes a "zero-gravity" treadmill, which takes weight off of the legs so the patient can relearn to walk. • Fittings and training with assistive devices. Bijal progressed from a wheelchair to a walker to forearm crutches, while also progressing from wearing full-leg braces to braces that only support her ankles. "She was a great example of the transition from aquatic therapy to land therapy," Lenahan says. "With her hard work, dedication and a little bit of luck, she's hit every goal we've set for her." NO LIMITS By early spring, Bijal was walking with the help of crutches. She could get herself in and out of a car and was driving again. More importantly, she says, she was back to cooking and caring for all of the family members who had cared for her during the past two years. And she's still setting goals. She hopes to eventually walk with a single cane and, perhaps, no cane at all by the time her son Kunal graduates from West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North next year. (Her daughter, Kajol, is a rising junior at George Washington University.) She also hopes to find a second career and return to work— all things that were still hard for her to imagine just a year ago. "I have great family support, and I cannot rave enough about what CentraState has done for me," Bijal says. "I've made fantastic progress." For more information about CentraState's rehabilitation services, call 866-CENTRA7 (866-236-8727). HD www.centrastate.com Summer 2016 11

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