Extraordinary Recovery After Stroke and Spinal Cord Injury

Mark Wilson hoists himself up on the parallel bars and moves his legs, sparking cheers from the physicians and therapists who enabled the 69-year-old Carteret man to recover from paralysis.

Just over a year ago, a stroke caused Wilson to fall and injure his neck. He lay motionless on the floor for two days until concerned family members prompted police to break down his door to rescue him. After his hospitalization, he began inpatient therapy at JFK Rehabilitation Institute. He remembers he could not even roll over in bed, and he recalls the tilt table that enabled him to get upright — “It was like Frankenstein,” he says.

“When you have been independent all your life — and suddenly you can’t hold a fork, it’s serious stuff. I tried to have a good attitude, but I remember thinking, ‘Is this it?’” Wilson recalls. He worked three hours each day with physical and occupational therapists and other professionals, slowly improving. He continued his therapy after he returned home with a motorized wheelchair.

Pain and paralysis, caused by his dual injuries — stroke and trauma — made everyday life a challenge. His daughter moved in with him to help. Surgery to stabilize his spine needed to be postponed because of his stroke, but was eventually performed by Yevgenia Shekhtman, M.D., a neurosurgeon at Hackensack Meridian Neuroscience Institute at JFK University Medical Center.

After surgery, Wilson, a former truck driver, continued with outpatient therapies and treatment. Today he can walk, drive, play guitar and piano, and even stand on one leg to show his balance. He recently visited JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute to thank the physicians, therapists, nurses, and others on the team that provided his therapy and care.

“I can’t tell you what it means to come here and say thank you to everyone,” he says. Among those in the room were Jennifer M. Chui, M.D., and Phillip Gordon, M.D., both physicians specializing in spinal cord injury, and Moriah Springstead, an occupational therapist who worked with him.

“We tell our patients that recovery is a marathon, not a sprint,” Dr. Gordon says. “It takes doctors, therapists, support from family and friends, and the patients themselves. We wish all our patients would have a recovery that looks like Mark’s. But we know the finish line looks different for every patient.”

Wilson says his recovery was slow but steady.

“I started therapy in my wheelchair. Eventually JFK Johnson got me up and walking. It really was one step at a time,” Wilson says. “I am very close now to doing everything I could do before. Sometimes it’s like it was all a dream … And all I can say is that I am so grateful and thankful for everyone who helped me.”

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