In an article entitled, Alix Reese: "I'm Still Myself", a young woman, Alix, is interviewed about her life after her spinal cord injury. Alix was giving her friend a ride home in Columbus, OH when she was caught in the crossfire of a street shooting. The bullet went through the back of her neck, damaging part of her spinal cord and leaving her paralyzed from the shoulders down. She uses a suck and blow device to control her motorized wheelchair and is on a ventilator but she's not letting that slow her down.
The one thing that stood out to me in this article was her attitude about her situation especially considering it was completely out of her control. She wasn't being reckless or doing something risky, she was doing a favor for her friend and her life was completely altered due to it. But rather than have resentment, she has a positive outlook and hasn't let the incident change who she is. She still loves science fiction movies and novels and is still planning on fulfilling her goal of becoming a teacher.
My clinical take away from this article is the importance of attitude when it comes to life altering diagnoses. Although she's 31 and living in a nursing facility with people over twice her age, she knows that she still has a ton to accomplish in life. The day she was shot, she was looking into going back to school to be a teacher or speaker and she still has that plan in mind today. I think that is a big part of ones attitude if they can still picture themselves accomplishing the goals they had set before the injury. That's something we as OTs can work on with them to do. Find their passion or goals they had pre-injury and find a way to incorporate that into their therapy and lives.
References
Oliphint, J. (2016, May 27). People: Alix Reese: "I'm still myself". Retrieved from http://www.columbusalive.com/content/stories/2016/05/26/people-alix-reese-im-still-myself.html
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