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VOLUME 22, NUMBER 2
JANUARY 10,1975
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
At the Hospital’s I.R.U.
Rehabilitation Is Hard Work and Rewards
I
CHECKING THE FIT—Dr. Ed Cooper, director of the hospital s Inpatient
Rehabilitation Unit, examines a halo brace which keeps accident victim John Bass
immobilized to prevent further injury. (Photo by David Williamson)
N.C. Orthodontic Society
Meeting Here Today, Sat.
Twelve professors will describe here
tomorrow how_ breathing problems can
deform the.Jace and jaws. They will also
discuss how to reduce or eliminate
Such problems.
Their reports will be given at this
year s meeting of the North Carolina
Orthodontic Society, which began
today at the Downtowner Motel and will
move to the Duke Hospital
Amphitheater Saturday. More than 100
doctors are expected to attend.
Several of Saturday s speakers will
discuss when to remove tonsils and
adenoids. The tonsils parents worry
about are the two fleshy glands—each
the size of an almond—at the back of
the throat. The adenoids are similar
glands out of sight at the back of the
nasal cavity.
These glands can be so large during
childhood that they interfere with
breathing and proper tongue function,
said Dr. Galen W. Quinn, president of
the Orthodontic Society and a professor
at Duke.
As a result, he said, they can effect
the growth and development of the face
and jaws.
A child who can t get enough air
through his nose is forced to breathe
through his mouth. Quinn said. Thus,
the jaw muscles |ire constantly tensed
to keep the mouth open. This tension
can cause the jaws to grow misshapen,
preventing the teeth from closing
together as they should and giving the
child an odd appearance.
Quinn will lead off Saturday s
speakers at 9 a.m. with a lecture entitled
Airway Interference and Its Effect on
(Continued on page 2)
By David Williamson
"It takes a lot of patience not to help
someone you see struggling.” said RN
Diane VonGerichton, assistant head
nurse at the Inpatient Rehabilitation
Unit. "Especially when you're right
there and you could do it so much
easier yourself. ’
Those may sound like strange words
coming from a nurse, since nursing and
helping have been almost synonymous
since the days of Florence Nightingale.
But, in fact, "not helping " is a large part
of what the Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit
is all about.
In case you didn't know (and many
people don t), the "Unit' is a 27-bed
satellite ward of the hospital located
almost a mile away at 3100 Erwin Road,
it occupies the second floor of the
Durham Rehabilitation Center, a large,
gray. Georgian-style building with white
columns fronting on Moreene Road.
Ms. VonGerichton’s words are part of
a philosophy designed to assist patients
there who have severe disabilities
achieve the highest possible levels of
independence. The patients include
primarily automobile, motorcycle and
job accident victims with spinal cord
injuries, those with total hip or knee
replacements (amputees) and stroke or
neurological disorder sufferers.
It is only by constant effort can a
patient who is assigned to the unit hope
"to make the most of what he s got
left, Ms. VonGerichton explained, and
become as productive as possible in his
new world.
Richard K. Hutchins, a longtime
Durham resident is a case in point. At
the moment, he s recovering from a
laminectomy, the removal of a tumor on
his spinal cord. For this plucky
gentleman, who has no feeling below
his thighs, even getting into the bathtub
is a difficult task. Still, he practices this
chore day after day, and many times a
day.
Melanie Lyons, an occupational
therapy aide, stands by his side ready to
lend an arm in case he loses his
balance—something which could cause
him further injury. But Ms. Lyons
doesn t touch him unless she has to.
And Mr. Hutchins doesn t ask for help.
Mike McCallister of Fort Mill. S.C.,
who was also a patient on the unit
became an example of rehabilitation at
its best. The young man. an employee of
Duke Power Co.. was working on high
voltage lines near Durham on April 18
last year when he touched cables
charged with 125.000 volts of electricity.
Through a careless error, someone had
allowed the current to be cut on before
Mike and his crew had finished their
assignment.
His arms and legs were severely
burned, and his life hung in the balance
for many days. Both legs had to be
amputated below the knees, and his left
arm was amputated at the elbow.
The Vietnam veteran who had come
unscathed through combat in
Southeast Asia fought depression, pain
and the opinions of those who thought
he would spend the rest of his life in a
wheelchair. He was fitted with artificial
limbs in the hospital’s Department of
Prosthetics and Orthotics. and
therapists working with the Inpatient
Rehabilitation Unit taught him to use
them.
Five minutes after he got his new
limbs he was up and hobbling around.
Today he works, drives a car and walks
with scarcely a limp.
But Mike's progress was extreme.
Usually the pace is slower, sometimes
agonizingly so. especially in cases
where wheelchair movement becomes
the goal and is not just a preliminary to
walking.
Head nurse Lillie Gentry explained
that patients who have lost a major part
of their normal functions generally go
through three psychological stages
which affect the rate and potential of
recovery.
The first stage is denial. During this
period, the patient may completely
reject the idea that he will never walk
again despite overwhelming evidence.
Surprisingly, it’s not unusual for the
individual to make the best progress
then toward regaining whatever use of
the limbs is possible.
The head nurse said staff members
work with the patients and at the same
time tactfully avoid disagreeing with
them when the almost inevitable
protestations begin.
The second stage is frequently the
hardest because it often involves severe
depression. Physical progress slows
considerably, and nurses and therapists
can do little beyond listening and
offering encouragement and support.
The third stage, acceptance, marks a
new beginning.
(Continued on page 3)
Employees Top
Area's Donors
The business and finance division of
the university was honored recently
with a Red Cross certificate of
appreciation for being 1974's largest
group blood donor in the county.
According to Mrs. Gretchen Durham,
blood program director for Durham
County, the division topped all other
large contributors in the area by going
200 per cent over their goal in
donations.
The division, under the direction of
material support director Bill Haas, had
pledged to donate 351 pints of blood for
1974, she said, “and it almost reached
the 700 mark.' Mrs. Durham also noted
that the division s pledge year does not
officially end until mid-March of this
year.
Though the 1,400 business and
finance division s employees have
equaled their pledges several times in
recent years, this is the first year they
have donated more blood than the
county s other large contributors.