Patient Stories

Linda

--Excerpted from St. Joseph's Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2006

Linda counted her blessings during the last holiday season from an unlikely place--a bed at St. Joseph's. In December, Linda was driving home from her shift at St. Joseph's when her car stalled on State Route 51. After she called police for help, a car slammed into the back of hers, instantly breaking her neck.
 
A nurse at St. Joseph's, Linda immediately knew the seriousness of her injuries and insisted that paramedics take her to Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph's.
 
"I knew I had a spinal-cord injury and that Barrow was the best place to go for treatment," says Linda.

Upon arrival at St. Joseph's Level 1 Trauma Center, Linda could only wiggle one toe. Her neck was locked, causing compression to her spinal cord, and surgeons needed to quickly unlock it to prevent a complete spinal-cord injury and permanent paralysis. Trauma specialists and neurosurgeons medicated Linda to relax her muscles and then manually realigned her spine before performing surgery to stabilize her spinal column. Because of the quick diagnosis and treatment, Linda is walking again.
 
"Linda came in with a fracture that very few people recover from," says Nicholas Theodore, MD, Barrow neurosurgeon. "Every minute that is lost with this kind of injury lessens the chance for recovery."
 
"I feel like somebody was watching and protecting me," says Linda. "God's hands brought me to St. Joseph's where I have received phenomenal care and treatment in order to make a full recovery."