I was supposed to be meeting a former patient.
Her journey was complex and traumatic.
She reached out to me on social media and asked to meet me.
In my mind she knew me, but in hers she couldn’t quite remember me.
After many years of practice in the ED I’d never had a request like this.
I kept scanning the room, but no one looked familiar.
Finally a woman tapped me on the shoulder and said, “I think you’re Rebekah, right?”
Ha! The shock was all mine because the human in front of me was unrecognizable to me.
She was strong, healthy, focused, and vibrant. She was not the echo of the person I met in the ED some months before.
Who I saw standing before me was nothing short of miraculous.
Here’s how our story started:
“Consult in room 43 for low back pain.”
Another one.
My student and I went into this patient encounter expecting a typical evaluation for musculoskeletal pain. It was anything but.
The patient’s condition initially presented like a mechanical low back pain but with quiet, subtle, concerning features that I couldn’t quite shake…
By the end of our session I managed what I could manage from a physical therapy perspective but confronted the new attending. And when I say new, I mean he was brand new—first shift, and had never met a PT in the ED.
“I’m Rebekah, the physical therapist, I saw your patient in room 43 and something is wrong. Here are my findings…”
Having completed the process of evaluate, treat, and refer my management was complete, or so I believed.
When I came back the next day I learned what came next. A “simple case,” of low back pain had evolved into this.
My concerns had been heard and the patient was now in the ICU recovering from a severe spinal abscess that nearly took her life overnight.
I went on to see this patient in the ICU, the floor, and the rehab unit before she returned home to continue her rehab journey.
On this day, in this cafeteria, I got to see a transformed woman.
She has no memory of our encounter in the emergency department, but I will never forget.
She credits me with saving her life, which may be dramatic, but goes to demonstrate the utility our skillset has in this setting.
By being the musculoskeletal experts we can recognize easily what is and is not in that scope and ultimately manage the patient to optimal care.
That was the most meaningful experience I’ve ever had in the caf.
If you are ready to practice at the top of your scope in the emergency department, you will touch lives in ways you may not imagine.
Consider joining our musculoskeletal & dizziness management course to prepare you for your role in making ripples.
Physical therapists make hope tangible, we give people their lives back. But sometimes we save them too.
For more information and to register, click here. Have questions? Ask me here.
