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Patient Stories

As a national leader in rehabilitative care, Spaulding Rehabilitation helps patients find their strength every day. But it's the words and experiences of our patients that best describe what our services can really do.

Our patient stories provide a look inside the outstanding rehabilitative services available through our network of world-class providers. We invite you to read these compelling and unforgettable stories — and learn how our rehabilitative care has changed people's lives.

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Gifts to Spaulding support our patients and families as they build new futures. Throughout Spaulding’s history, we have improved the lives of thousands of people. Together, and with your generous donations, we will continue to discover and deliver the best care possible — today and tomorrow.

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  • Patient Story

    Meet Robert Lewis, Jr. | A Spaulding Story of Strength

    COVID-19 survivor and Spaulding patient Robert Lewis, Jr. shares his journey: from diagnosis with the novel coronavirus through his rehabilitation at Spaulding Hospital Cambridge—and what it means to him to be back at work at the community outreach organization he founded in Boston. My COVID-19 Recovery—As Told by Robert Lewis, Jr. I’m not sure how I expected to feel when I turned 60 years old last spring, but I didn’t anticipate a trip to the emergency department. I certainly didn’t expect to be sedated, intubated, and wake up 12 days later. But on March 22—my 60th birthday— that’s what happened. It was the beginning of my COVID-19 journey. It was an intense and frightening time. When I was moved to Spaulding Hospital Cambridge for rehabilitation after three weeks of acute care, I had to relearn…everything: how to breathe without an oxygen tank; how to walk; how to touch my nose and tie my sneakers. I had to get my strength back. What struck me about Spaulding was the incredible treatment that I—and my family—received from everyone there, from the moment I arrived until I walked out just one week later. There’s a culture of love and compassion and excellence that radiates from every person. Trust

  • Patient Story

    Meet Pierce

    Para leer esta historia en español, visite nuestra página en el Internet. Who was by your side when you achieved a major goal? For Pierce Scroggins, it was his Spaulding physical therapist Eric, who ran with Pierce as he completed a 5K race in his hometown of Pembroke, MA. It was an important milestone for 25-year-old Pierce, who had lost all ability to move, speak, or eat just two years before. Our donor community was with Pierce, too. Gifts to Spaulding provides resources and support to help patients like Pierce achieve their goals. In 2018, just after Pierce graduated college with a mechanical engineering degree, a severe headache uncovered an extremely rare, cancerous tumor at his brain stem. He spent the next eight months in hospitals, including Spaulding Cambridge and Boston, undergoing multiple brain surgeries and chemotherapy. Pierce was determined to get better. He relearned to walk. He went home. And then the cancer came back. Suddenly, Pierce had a new goal: get strong enough to receive a life-saving bone marrow transplant and subsequent proton radiation. He achieved that critical milestone with the help of his Spaulding outpatient therapy team and then began the work to get back to his pre-cancer activities. “In addition to running a

  • Patient Story

    Meet Paul C: Sharing His Strength

    Fall 2023 | Oct 19, 2023 Navigating a critical illness or injury gives you perspective — and often, healing is buoyed by having a strong sense of purpose. Last fall, Paul Callahan needed surgery to address pressure sores that were not healing with the typical protocols for a person living with quadriplegia. He turned to Spaulding Rehabilitation Nursing and Therapy Center Brighton for his extensive recovery. Paul was highly motivated to complete the healing process — and get back to his role running a therapeutic sailing program that serves more than 1,000 children and adults with disabilities. “Although I had some idea of what to expect, it hit home when I came to Spaulding to attain the goal of physical healing, it would take a significant amount of mental fortitude, too,” Paul says. “Spaulding’s caring, knowledgeable, and compassionate team was a critical factor in accomplishing my goal.” It took 10 weeks of bed rest, highly responsive care, and therapeutic rehabilitation to get Paul back to his power wheelchair again — and most important to him, back to his role helping others in the disabled community. He credits the Spaulding team for bolstering his spirits through the dreary winter months on bed rest and for

  • Patient Story

    Meet Nick

    Spring 2023 Nick’s Boston Marathon journey began 10 years ago when he was a freshman at Boston College. The day before the race, he was inspired to be on the start line and managed to secure a bib through a club on campus. The next day, he found himself on a school bus en route to the start line of the 2013 Boston Marathon, having never completed a run longer than six miles. Despite his lack of preparation, adrenaline carried Nick through the first 13 miles past the Wellesley Scream Tunnel. His run slowed to a power-walk on his way up Heartbreak Hill, but he was determined to reach his classmates on BC’s campus at Mile 21. The euphoric stretch of high-fives and cheers from fellow BC Eagles carried Nick through miles 20 and 22, and before he knew it, he was approaching the final mile into Copley Square. As he approached the final stretch on Boylston St., excitement quickly turned to confusion when he saw a cloud of smoke and heard what sounded like fireworks behind the finish line. Nick was only a few hundred feet from the second explosion before he was stopped in his tracks and curled up on

  • Patient Story

    Meet Martha and the “Spaulding Sisters”

    The self-titled “Spaulding Sisters” made the most of 2020. The group of women met at Spaulding Boston over the past several years, bonding over their shared love of aquatic therapy. When the COVID-19 pandemic closed our community water fitness classes, the Sisters came together to support each other and their health in a whole new way. The ladies are avid participants in the Spaulding Adaptive Sports Program’s virtual classes (launched in response to the pandemic), “meeting” several times a week to exercise virtually together from the safety of their homes. They are among the more than 1,000 participants who have benefitted from virtual classes like yoga, boxing, exercise for stroke and TBI, dance with Parkinson’s, and more. In 2020, donations were used to pivot Spaulding adaptive sports programming to be entirely virtual—supporting the health and wellness of an even broader community, when so many were isolated and unable to participate in their regular fitness and community activities. Martha Starr, “Spaulding Sister,” patient, and volunteer, says the virtual programs have been a true lifesaver in 2020. And so have the Sisters’ weekly Friday Zoom calls to check in on one another. They share resources and coping strategies, discuss their conditions, and laugh together. Martha

  • Patient Story

    Meet Lizzy: A Journey of Rehabilitation and Advocacy

    Summer 2023 In the summer of 2019, Lizzy Ragan fell while rock climbing in New Hampshire and experienced a severe spinal cord injury. After being rushed to a nearby intensive care unit, she was transferred to Spaulding Charlestown to begin her rehabilitation journey, with the ultimate goal of returning to her career and passions. It was a difficult undertaking, but Lizzy approached it with determination and focus — traits that have helped her get to where she is today. Coming from an athletic background, Lizzy was motivated to conquer her rehab routine and get back to the activities she loved. At Spaulding, her physical therapists were behind her the entire way, developing a routine that supported those goals. “Melissa motivated me to lean into my rehab routine, but not to limit myself,” said Lizzy of one particularly supportive care team member. “She encouraged me to focus on getting back to living the life I desired.” It was this mentality that made the strongest impression on Lizzy. When she began her rehabilitation, Lizzy’s goal was to return to work after a year of inpatient and outpatient therapy — but by early 2020 she was already back working at a local hospital during the height

  • Patient Story

    Meet Lauren and Tracey: From Rehab to the Finish Line

    Spring 2023 Watch this special story of a mother and daughter who both underwent outpatient rehabilitation therapy with Spaulding, and recently achieved an incredible feat — running the Boston Marathon on Spaulding's Race for Rehab Team. Their journey is a testament to the power of healing and perseverance. Join us in celebrating their

  • Patient Story

    Meet Ethan | A Spaulding Story of Strength

    Para leer esta historia en español, visite nuestra página en el Internet. Who was by your side when you achieved a major life goal? For Ethan Wang, it will be a community of family, friends, and caregivers cheering for him (virtually) as he walks at his Boston University graduation this year. It’s a significant milestone for Ethan, who sustained a spinal cord injury while studying abroad—paralyzing him from the neck down and derailing his junior year of college. In Bali in March 2019, Ethan was critically injured while swimming in the ocean. He needed immediate life-saving surgery, followed by a medical evacuation and more surgeries in Singapore, before he could return home to Massachusetts. Then came the long journey of rehabilitation. Our donor community has been with Ethan on this journey, too. Gifts to Spaulding provide resources and support to help patients like Ethan achieve their goals. “Our family’s main source of strength is the amazing support we have received,” says Ethan’s father, Willis. “There is so much strength in community, and that is what has helped us.” Paralysis caused by a spinal cord injury (SCI) is an intense, life-changing event. Ethan spent 148 days as an inpatient at Spaulding Boston, achieving a new physical milestone

  • Patient Story

    Dave's Heart Attack Story - Spaulding Rehab

    "They really focused on treating me as a whole patient and addressed the anxiety I had. They gave me the tools to relieve my stress so I could learn to breathe on my own again." When Dave Demers suffered a heart attack in 2009, he was fortunate to have a superb team caring for him. When a reaction to a medication caused pulmonary hemorrhaging, his doctors needed to take him off blood thinning drugs. This led to a blood clot that caused a second heart attack. Dave ended up on a ventilator, unable to breathe on his own. "I was too sick to do it," recalls Dave, an Upton resident and father of three who was in Pennsylvania for work at the time of his first heart attack. As Dave started to recover, getting off the ventilator became a top priority. His wife, Karen, a home-care nurse, asked her medical colleagues for recommendations. "Everyone told us that Shaughnessy-Kaplan (now Spaulding Hospital for Continuing Medical Care North Shore) was the place to go, that they had the best statistics for weaning people off ventilators," Dave said. An air ambulance brought Dave to the hospital's Ventilator Rehabilitation program on July 31. He arrived full of anxiety,

  • Patient Story

    Meet Clifton: Surviving Stroke: There and Back Again

    Spring 2023 Life often comes full circle. Clifton Singletary’s Spaulding Rehabilitation story began while he was serving our patients. When he returned to Spaulding as a patient himself, his desire to give back grew stronger. Clifton’s first visit to Spaulding was in July 2013 to escort the Boston Pops as they performed for survivors of the Boston Marathon bombings. Clifton, a decorated Boston police officer, was invited to Spaulding in recognition of his service that day, when he helped load the wounded into ambulances. Clifton never imagined that he would return to Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston almost 10 years later, following a hemorrhagic stroke. Unable to walk on his own and struggling with post-stroke coordination, sensory, and cognitive symptoms, he found that his Spaulding team was determined to get him back on his feet. “This is beyond professionalism,” he says. “There’s a level of dedication the people have here that is beyond comprehension.” Spaulding’s personalized approach to care has Clifton not only walking again but inspired to return to the hospital to help others. Part of his efforts include participating in a research study testing a virtual reality–linked treadmill to improve gait performance for stroke survivors like himself. One in four people will have a

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