Jackson, Miss.—LaKeysha Greer easily could have ignored the tingling in her toes and fingers.
But the Jackson lawyer decided to visit the emergency room before leaving on a business trip to Austin, Texas. And she’s ever so glad she did. Otherwise, she might have been aboard a plane when the “weird feeling” escalated into a paralyzing case of Guillain-Barre’ Syndrome (GBS).
Flowood, Miss.—Staff at Methodist Orthotics and Prosthetics were at her side when Margaret McCarty Duncan of Starkville took her first nervous steps on an artificial leg more than five years ago.
And when she underwent a more extensive amputation this past May, they traveled 200 miles to prep her for a new prosthesis.
Flowood, Miss.—Polly Roberts used to look at her clenched left fist with a sense of resignation.
She figured it was futile to hope for further recovery from the 1999 stroke that left her hand so constricted she couldn’t pull up her own bed covers. “You reach a plateau where they say it’s as good as it’s going to be,” said the 76-year-old Brandon resident.
JACKSON, Miss.—It was the scariest Halloween ever and the happiest New Year by far.
That’s how 36-year-old Hollie Harvey sums up a holiday season that has taught the Mendenhall mother of three to treat each new day as a gift. “I’m thankful to be alive,” she said. “I look at things in a whole new light.”
Harvey’s perspective was changed by a chain of events that began when her husband Tim hitched a hay trailer to his father-in-law’s Chevrolet Silverado and took family and friends on an old-fashioned Halloween hayride.
JACKSON, Miss.—As you look over your child’s wish list this holiday season, consider each request with an eye toward safety, says Lauren Fairburn, coordinator of Think First, Methodist Rehabilitation Center’s statewide safety and injury prevention program.
“Sometimes children want toys that are totally inappropriate for their age level or abilities,” Fairburn said. “So it’s the responsibility of parents to make sure their children don’t receive toy that might be dangerous to their health.”
JACKSON, Miss.—Glowing candles add a touch of glamour to holiday celebrations—and an element of danger, as well.
“Christmas is the No. 1 day for candle fires, and Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day are tied for No. 2,” says Lauren Fairburn, coordinator of Think First, Methodist Rehabilitation Center’s statewide safety and injury prevention program.
According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), 14 percent of home candle fires occur in December, almost twice the monthly average of 8 percent.
JACKSON, Miss.—A long day of holiday gift buying doesn’t just batter your budget.
Marathon sessions at the mall also take a physical toll, says physical therapist Joe Jacobson, director of outpatient services at Methodist Rehabilitation Center in Jackson and Flowood.
“This time of year we see people suffering what might be called ‘shopper’s shoulder’ or ‘browser’s back,’” Jacobson said. “They’ve hauled around too many bags or tried to wrestle something heavy into a car trunk and wound up straining muscles and joints.”
JACKSON, Miss.—As hunters head back to the woods for another deer season, Dr. David Collipp cautions outdoorsman to be extra careful using tree stands.
Dr. Collipp, a physical medicine physician at Methodist Rehabilitation Center, said tree stand accidents are probably the third most common cause of spinal cord injuries in Mississippi. “Such falls also are associated with brain injuries and any number of fractures,” he said.
JACKSON, Miss.—As you fuel up your car for holiday travel, be wary of a seasonal danger at the pumps—gas fires sparked by static electricity.
Such accidents can happen at any time, but they’re more common in December, January and February, said Lauren Fairburn, coordinator of Think First, the statewide injury prevention program at Methodist Rehabilitation Center in Jackson.
JACKSON, Miss.—Like a lot of people whose lives were turned topsy-turvy by Hurricane Katrina, Alice Houston of Bay Springs sees herself as a survivor. The storm’s wrath may have shattered her rib cage, bruised her lungs, battered her skull and crushed her spinal cord, but it didn’t make a dent in her determination.
Every day she tests her limits in the third floor therapy gym at Methodist Rehabilitation Center in Jackson. “All I know is to keep going until it hurts too much to do it,” she says. “I want as much of my freedom back as I can.”