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Matt had been in the wheelchair for about six years. He's undergone amputations on both
legs, and has prosthetics, but has never been able to use them. It's probably a frustrating
situation for him, he's been bound to a wheelchair for six years, and all he really wants to
do is walk. It's not an unfair thing to ask for. To get that kind of help, is definitely
something we should be able to do. We brought him in here, and he had one goal, and that
was to walk. Luckily, he had a great therapist in Brian, who knew the correct steps to take
him through and was able to progress him accordingly. Over time, he got to the point where he was
going from not being able to get out of his chair on his own, to then standing up on his
prosthetics, and then balancing on his prosthetics. Ultimately, starting to walk across the clinc.
Walking outside of the clinic. Now he's doing that out in the community.
Overall, working with Matt has been a rewarding experience for myself, as well as the clinic.
We are able to emulate six hundred feet with the rolling walker. He's making some functional
progress, we're progressing toward his long term goals.
I finally got my goal to walk. I haven't walked in about, six years, or seven years. I feels
great. It feels real good to walk again. I'm glad they were able to help me.
He was coming in with a driver one day, and talking about how needed a new wheelchair,
in terms of meeting his functional activity level, outside of the clinic, outside of the
distances he can walk at this point because his old one was actually broken. So we decided
to do a little bit of a fundraiser to try and offset some of those things. In some ways,
it was our own version of having a star athlete in the clinic. The guy was just exceeding
any kind of expectations that he probably had for himself, or that they had for him
as well. You know, we'll always have a place in his heart, and more importantly, he's always
going to have a place in ours.
It's been a pleasure coming here, having fun, day in and day out. Inspiration to motivation
to keep going. Everyone made me feel like home. A home away from home.