(March 2008) - Michael Ellis says he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
A competitive basketball player since age eight, Ellis had just graduated high school
and was looking forward to attending Drexel University on a Division I basketball
scholarship. Eleven days after graduation, he was mugged at gunpoint.
Before taking off with this book bag, cell phone, iPod and shoes, the person who
mugged Ellis, shot him in the back. He remembers his legs giving out.
While in the hospital, Ellis learned that the gunshot rested right inside
his spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed.
“The doctor said I wouldn’t be able to walk again – that I’d be dead from
the waist down,” said Ellis. He went to SSM Rehabilitation Hospital at St. Mary’s for rehabilitation.
He did well and learned to use a wheelchair. But his discharge was nearing
and his Medicaid insurance wouldn’t cover any additional therapy.
“This was a kid with so much potential. He was motivated and worked
hard,” said SSM Rehabilitation Hospital case manager Marti Goldammer-Miller, who worked with Ellis
and his family. “We wanted to get him as much therapy as possible to help
him be independent.” She submitted an application to SSM Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation’s
Community Care Fund to cover continuing therapy for him in the Day Institute program,
which was accepted. “Without the Community Care Fund available, he would have
had very little opportunity,” added Goldammer-Miller.
When Ellis started at the Hazelwood Day Institute, he was determined to focus
on learning to walk again. Supportive, but also knowing what Ellis’ earlier
doctor had told him, Day Institute physical therapist Jennifer Hotfelder said, “I
encouraged him to make learning advanced wheelchair skills his ‘Plan B’."
Hotfelder worked with Ellis at the Day Institute from August through October.
“He came every day and had very intensive therapy,” she said. Today he comes
three days a week for outpatient therapy. The biggest change is that he’s
now learning to walk with a cane.
“I’m still amazed at how far he has come,” admitted Hotfelder. “He has exceeded
my expectations and he continues to do well. His attitude and motivation have
really helped.”
Encouraged by how much improvement he has seen so far, Ellis said, “I know
I’ll be walking by summertime.” Having played select basketball for years,
he hopes to get back to the game someday. But he also has another motivation:
his 9-month-old brother.
“That’s my whole purpose to get back to where I was,” he said. “I have
to look after him.”
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