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A GREAT reason to join the APTA . . . a not-so funny treatment story
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A GREAT reason to join the APTA . . . a not-so funny tr... - October 18, 2000 12:40:00 PM
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Andrew M. Ball, MS, PT
Posts: 500
Joined: October 8, 1999
From: Chapel Hill, NC, USA
Status: offline
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Yesterday I went up to work in an outlying NC county with a little girl with spastic hemiplegia that I've been treating over the course of the past two years. When I first began working with her a little more than two years ago, the PT and neurologist at her hospital of birth had found her to have spastic quadriplegia and began preparing the family for the probability that she'd probably never walk. My evaluation found her to have spastic hemiplegia, but that's another story . . . the point is that she was dominated by primitive reflexes and had a hard time so much as lifting her head.
Over the past two years she's had many gains and many set backs too . . . approaching independent ambulation on several occasions and never quite getting it, either due to illness or neurmusculoskeletal complications
associated with cerebral palsy. Anyway, she's approaching transition age and I'm excited to see her FINALLY break the ambulation barrier about a month ago. Her skills have since EXPLODED! The child is
walking independently more than 500 feet bursts x 3 over both even and uneven surfaces. She's not perfect with going up and down steps, stoop and recovery, swinging on swingsets, or climbing the rungs on the ladder leading up to the slide (her favorite piece of playground equipment) . . . but not bad for just achieving independent ambulation a month ago.
Anyway, the big goal that I wanted to accomplish before the school system therapist takes over care, is to get her step length a little more balanced from side to side (for efficiency and safety reasons). We've been working on moving with
various rates of speed and this seems to help considerably with pretty good carry-over. There just isn't enough "runway" in the house, and so we usually go outside to work. It's also nice to get her outside
because although she's usually a pretty happy and smiley kid, she gets a little fussy (and loud) when she gets tired toward the end of treatment . . . and doesn't give much warning before shifting a laugh into a blood curdling scream. Being outside is a good motivator for her 'cause she loves to see her neighbors (they love to see her progress), and we get to walk down to play with her younger cousin down the street, or the playground up the street.
So there I was. I walked her down the street to the playground and we did our thing there. She got a little fussy with being encouraged to walk a little faster than usual, but nevertheless did well with it. We were walking back toward the house when a White Taurus rolled up on us. Not that unusual, I just figured it was going to be one of her neighbors stopping to say hello.
A man rolled down the window and asked me if I lived in the area. I thought that he was just asking for directions.
"No." I replied, "Chapel Hill."
The man proceeded to get out of the car, to which I postured by positioning myself between he and the child.
That's when I noticed the uniform. Now this is not the greatest of neighborhoods, there have been several drug busts, murders, etc. over the past few years, so my next thought was that he was looking for someone. Realizing this, I relaxed my posture, but went about treating the child. Afterall, I didn't live in the area and couldn't help him with finding whoever it was that he was looking for.
"I'm going to have to ask for you to step away from the child sir," he said in a very commanding tone.
I was a little baffled and had a little trouble getting any words out at first. I began to look up and explain who I was and what I was doing, only to find myself surrounded by 6 police officers, who I guess converged on the situation as I was in my own little world of treatment. They were all out of their cars, and all had their hands on the their weapons.
The child just giggled.
Now the state vehicle was up the block out of sight, and I suppose that I was dressed a little suspicious (cleanly shaven head, sun glasses, earring, leather trenchcoat) . . . all I could think about, as I'm being
politely "talked to" with my legs spread and hands on the trunk of the police cruiser, is that this kid's Grandmother is not in the greatest of health (otherwise she'd have been walking with us just like the child's Aunt usually does). I'm thinking that we're gonna walk back up to the house to verify my story, and THIS is when she's going to have collapsed on the floor secondary to one of her many chronic illnesses.
Thankfully the lead officer asked to see my wallet as he's explaining to me that someone called 911 thinking that a child was being abducted and that I fit the description of the person who, appropriately concerned,
called the station in a panic. He flipped open to my driver's license, physical therapy license, and APTA registration card . . . which has expired and I've been lax about having my PhD comitte chair sign off on the paperwork so that I can renew at the graduate student rate.
From behind me he made a sound that was something between a laugh of embarrassment and a snort of disappointment at not having busted the bad guy. In the end he let me go, but I'll never know how close I came to
have being cuffed, booked, and spending the night with a big guy named Bubba.
Saved by my license and the APTA membership card.
I think I'll renew my membership this year.
Respectfully,
Andrew M. Ball, MS, MBA, PT
[This message has been edited by Andrew M. Ball, MS, PT (edited October 18, 2000).]
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Re: A GREAT reason to join the APTA . . . a not-so funn... - October 19, 2000 3:58:00 AM
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Barrett
Posts: 967
Joined: July 28, 1999
From: Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
Status: offline
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Andrew,
The best stories are always the true ones. Thank you for this.
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Re: A GREAT reason to join the APTA . . . a not-so funn... - October 19, 2000 8:39:00 AM
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Bobcat
Posts: 493
Joined: July 13, 1999
Status: offline
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What a coincidence, Drew, because whenever I try to avoid attracting the attention of law enforcement in a high crime residential neighborhood, I usually... shave my head, wear dark glasses, don a leather trenchcoat, bear no external identification like a health care name badge, and then I manipulate the pelvic orientation of a much loved little physically-disabled girl as she walks up and down the block while she bawls at the top of her lungs.
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Re: A GREAT reason to join the APTA . . . a not-so funn... - October 19, 2000 3:15:00 PM
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Andrew M. Ball, MS, PT
Posts: 500
Joined: October 8, 1999
From: Chapel Hill, NC, USA
Status: offline
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LOL! Good point. I suppose that was a little . . . er . . . okay, VERY stupid of me. I actually don't look quite that sinister, but I thought that would enhance the comic effect of the story. [IMG]http://www.rehabedge.com/forums/smile.gif[/IMG]
I've been accused of many things, but never of looking threatening! Besides, I never said that I had the most common sense of anyone on the forum, but I actually dress in plain clothes on purpose. Dressing with a tie and button down shirt (or even khaki’s and a polo shirt) usually sticks out more in those kind of neighborhoods than plain clothes. Dressing up can be dangerous because the locals assume that you’re with the Department of Social Services.
Your point about why a state agency would send out its employees to do treatment without a picture identification from the agency and a big decal on the state vehicle stating "I'm not with the Department of Social Services, so don't shoot me by mistake" is totally beyond my comprehension.
[This message has been edited by Andrew M. Ball, MS, PT (edited October 19, 2000).]
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