Health Beat - Fall 2017 - 10

Beating

the Odds
Patient walks again
after severe spinal
cord injury
By John Berggren

L

ying on the ground under the
bed of a pickup truck following a rollover accident in which
she was ejected, Marci Clare
recalls thinking the reason she couldn't
move was because she was pinned. She
prayed help would find her soon on
that rural Ottawa County road in May
2016. She remembers asking God to
not let her die. She wanted to see her
babies again.
Within 30 minutes of the accident
she was found by a passerby who contacted emergency services. Clare wasn't
pinned; she was paralyzed. When she
woke up in the intensive care unit at
Salina Regional Health Center following
a long and complicated surgery to repair
the fractured C6 and C7 vertebrae in
her spine, Clare didn't want to ask doctors if she'd ever walk again. They had
already told family members the odds
were slim, but only time would tell.
"She had an incomplete fracture and
the approach with these types of injuries is surgical repair, take precautions
to prevent blood clots and infection,
and be super-aggressive with rehabilitative therapy," says Scott Boswell, M.D.,
the neurosurgeon on call the night of
Clare's accident.
Therapists began moving and
stretching Clare's arms and hands and
legs just hours after surgery. While she

10

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