Success Stories

Walking on the Road to Recovery

"Goodbye"

As Barbara Voyce walked away from Physical Therapy Care of Fort Bend following her last session on February 11, 2003 this ordinary word signified an extraordinary accomplishment for her. She had completed another step on the road to recovery following an accident that usually does not have the same happy ending. Eighteen sessions of physical therapy that began on New Year's Eve completed her physical transformation.

Her story began on Tuesday, December 9, 2003, when a seemingly ordinary day changed in an instant for this Richmond resident. The weather was bad and Voyce had her day planned. Her husband was in Oklahoma, her kids were in school, she had cookies to bake in the afternoon, but until then, she decided to spend time going horseback riding. The plan changed in an instant when she fell off her horse and hit her head.

"After my head stopped ringing, I didn't think that much was wrong, but I decided to take myself to the hospital to be checked out and drove to Methodist Hospital in Sugar Land," said Voyce.

When she got to the hospital, she had enough time to give the staff her personal information before she collapsed into a coma. Transferred to the Methodist Hospital in the Texas Medical Center and diagnosed with a closed head injury, the outcome looked grim for Voyce.

Her husband, who was on a business trip in Oklahoma, managed to find her. Upon talking to the doctor, he immediately drove home in record time. As this life and death drama unfolded, friends and strangers who knew her or heard her story joined together to create a prayer chain that spanned the United States, and that Voyce credits for saving her. Over the next week, Voyce waged the battle for her life, undergoing surgeries to relieve the pressure on her brain.

"I flat-lined, there was no brain activity," she said in a matter-of-fact voice that covered the emotional roller coaster that her family must have been riding. "I was put on a ventilator. The staff told my husband to bring in the kids."

Then on a Friday, three days after the accident, she started to breathe on her own. Gradually, she woke up and the long journey to full recovery began. She spent a week in Intensive Care, was then moved to an Intermediate Care Unit at the hospital and began physical therapy.

Laughing, she recalled that "at first my husband and the hospital staff kept asking me all these detailed questions, trying to be subtle until they established that my memory was still intact." On a more somber note, she pointed out that she was paralyzed on her left side, she could not even hold a fork. Following her discharge from the hospital on December 23 and knowing how much work still needed to be done, she looked for a physical therapist. A friend and a neighbor both recommended Physical Therapy Care of Fort Bend.

"To help patients recovering from a closed head injury is so rewarding," said Patti Kocich, President of Physical Therapy Care of Fort Bend. "Our team centers on our patients, helping them to deal with all the issues and challenges that they face both physically and mentally. Mentally, we consider their capacity for thinking and analyzing, their comprehension and their memory and physically, we consider their balance, coordination and strength. Many patients experience weakness to the point where they have to learn to sit up again."

"We did not focus only on the goal of graduating from the wheelchair to walking but on her entire medical situation. We had to monitor her blood pressure, medication and activity to keep her within certain medical parameters," Kocich said in outlining the challenges that faced her patient. "We never forget that we are taking care of someone who instantaneously lost everything, who on days realizes how much was lost and just how far it is to the finish line. We help them ride those emotional waves and encourage them to keep going."

Voyce acknowledged that last Christmas was different for her family. "There was no box, there was no ribbon, there was no wrapping paper, but it was a Christmas gift: my second chance at life."