Making Rounds
Rehab Center helps patients pick up where they left off
Joshua Soto-Perez came to Fayetteville from Texas, the way a lot of people do: in service to the U.S. Army and ready for whatever that required of him.
But just three months later, last September, a motorcycle accident changed everything for the 21-year-old. He survived, but with a serious spinal cord injury.
“I was in the hospital for about two weeks,” he said. “And then transferred to the rehab facility for about a month and a half.”
Located behind Cape Fear Valley Medical Center, the Cape Fear Valley Rehabilitation Center is a 78-bed facility that helps patients regain their strength and skills after a serious illness or injury. Patients often require this phase of treatment after spending time in the hospital for a brain or spinal cord injury, stroke, orthopedic surgery or prolonged illness.
For Soto-Perez, the first days in rehab were spent making cautious moves after two weeks in a hospital bed.
“At first it was just mostly learning how to move in and out of my wheelchair,” he said. “And slowly they started showing me how to get dressed, how to do typical everyday tasks.”
Being a young man in good physical shape helped to speed things along, and he soon realized that using a wheelchair didn’t have to completely change his lifestyle.
“They helped me realize I could still go to the gym,” he said. “I could still go out with friends, do wheelchair basketball, things like that.”
Felicia Barnes-Cummings, the center’s Inpatient Rehab Supervisor, says it’s gratifying to see patients “graduate” from rehab with renewed hope about the life ahead of them.
“We have so many patients who come back and say, ‘Look, I’m able to take care of myself now,’ or take care of their family or go back to work. They’ll come through and visit with the staff and it’s just so nice to see the progress they’ve made.”
The rehab center offers recreational, speech and aquatic therapies to help patients increase their functioning in a variety of skills. These are in addition to the core services of physical and occupational therapy.
Physical therapy is focused mostly on mobility, helping a patient learn to get up and move around their environment with or without a wheelchair, walker or other mobility aid.
“You’re going to get stronger. And you’ll leave there knowing you not only had good care, but you’ve made good friends.” – Lois Black, Patient
Occupational therapy focuses on a variety of things that occupy a person’s time: cooking, dressing, tending to household chores or enjoying a favorite hobby.
“People want to get back to the things they used to do, not just the things you want to show them,” said Barnes-Cummings. “So if someone loves to cook, we can break that down into steps and work with them on gathering the ingredients, chopping the vegetables. We had a man who used to ride his bike everywhere, so one of the therapists brought her bike in, and when his balance and strength were better, they rode the bike up and down the hall to help get him back to what he was doing before.”
This tailored, intensive therapy translates not only to improved function for the patient, but also to a much lower likelihood that they’ll need to be readmitted to the hospital for a related issue.
“They’re the reason I’m up and walking now,” said Lois Black. She’s endured a great deal in her 86 years, including colon cancer and a knee replacement. After breaking her ankle in a fall in 2022, she had it surgically repaired and then was transferred to the rehab center.
“They know their jobs well,” she said. “They always set the bar a little higher than I thought I could do things, and then I saw I could do it after all.”
With two children, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, Black worried at first that her injury might limit her ability to spend time with them. But she says the staff at the rehab center restored her optimism and courage.
“They were very, very compassionate,” she said. “They understood what I was going through, and I always felt better emotionally when I left therapy. They always lifted my spirits, besides helping me heal my body.”
She has advice for rehab patients who may feel as discouraged as she once did.
“Hang in there,” she said. “You’re going to get stronger. And you’ll leave there knowing you not only had good care, but you’ve made good friends.”
