Karen Anderson, Former Rehabilitation Director
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The elderly patients at Sweetwater Nursing Center are seeing amazing progress due to the physical therapy machine called the Quadriciser. Karen Anderson, Rehab Director says, “The Quadriciser is great for their patients. There are a ton of benefi ts.” Ethel Hero is a stroke patient who is regaining strength in her left side due to work-outs on the Quadriciser. Anderson says, “The Quadriciser has shown her where the left side is.” Ms. Hero was unable to recognize her left side and now she can take her left arm and pull it to the center. She can also cross her legs because her body is now recognizing it has a left side. Anderson says the Quadriciser has also helped Hero with her eating. “That’s a big deal for us. It would be very diffi cult for Ms. Hero to move her body the way the machine makes her move. She was so weak that she could not have replicated this any way. There is nothing she could have done to do this same movement.” Eric Lawhorn, an occupational therapist at Sweetwater, says the Quadriciser has “opened up a whole new avenue as far as our therapeutic options, especially from a cognitive standpoint which blows me away.” He says it’s amazing to talk to someone with dementia or with Alzheimer’s after only 30 minutes on the Quadriciser. He says the Quadriciser affects the brain. Amy Blackwood, a physical therapist, has been working with Elmer Roy who is also a stroke patient. Roy had vascular surgery on his legs and has lost the ability to walk and the ability to raise his arms. “When I met him, he could not touch his shoulder and now we are working on standing in the parallel bars and reaching up across his body with his arm and a lot of it has to do with the Quadriciser. Lawhorn also works with Roy and says, “We saw a lot of improvement. As soon as we got him off the Quadriciser, I said now reach up and touch your nose. It surprised him so much, that’s all he’s talked about. After a stroke, you are so uncoordinated on one side or another, simple things that you and I take for granted, it’s just huge.” Blackwood says that from a therapy standpoint, the Quadriciser is a good tool if you have someone with increasing spasticity. “It helps to get more range of motion. In the nursing home population, for contractual management, that could be huge so they are not getting contracted which leads to bed sores and things you really don’t’ want.” One of the nice things with the Quadriciser is that patients who have hit a plateau, who are coming off traditional therapy, or may not be a traditional therapy candidate can actually be considered because it gives you an opportunity to get rid of the plateau. It gives you the opportunity to give them something different, to stimulate their brain in a different way, to stimulate their muscles in a different way and then take that and move it into something more traditional in therapy—standing balance, walking, transferring, bed mobility, being able to put their shoes on and off, just the response time. “It’s a nice way to give someone the opportunity to have improvement in their range of motion and their ability to move and to have balance, all those things lead to a better quality of life and that’s what we want. I want my grandmother to have a good quality of life and if there is something out there that will help her not be stagnant and not curl up into a ball than I want that,” said Blackwood. As Elmer walks on the parallel bars, Blackwood says, “Initially we were not able to put his boot on him but after the Quadriciser, we’ve been able to put his boot back on him which has enabled him to start walking again. That is very exciting.” Roy said, “Nothing has helped me like this. Without any pain, that’s the best part. When I get through, I am not worn out.” The biggest thing with keeping patients in therapy is being able to document consistent progress. It brings them to another level or another couple of levels. At Sweetwater, they have been able to keep patients longer because they have been able to document progress. Lawhorn says, “The Quadriciser is actually increasing our work load and that’s what I like because that’s job security.” Karen Anderson was also the former Director at National Neuro, and she is a speech therapist.“I have found the Quadriciser to very valuable in helping our patients with attention and word finding. I don’t know if the improvement is a result of increased circulation or neuroplastic change, but we wouldn’t want to operate the clinic without it! Karen Anderson, M.A., CCC-SLP
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