Servo - December 2013

A few months ago, I was in a very severe car accident.

After a head-on collision, both my arms and both my legs were broken in multiple spots, requiring a massive surgery on three of my four limbs in order to repair the damage with metal rods and plates. Not surprisingly, I needed a great deal of physical and occupational therapy to relearn how to do everything from walking to holding a spoon to tying my shoes, and countless other things I had taken for granted before the accident. One thing that struck me through this process was the creative ways my occupational therapists adapted simple items to aid in my therapy.

Tiny beads hidden in Silly Putty were used to help improve the fine motor skills in my fingers. They taught me to use a trigger grip reaching device to put on my socks. In fact, for every problem I came across, my therapist would dash from the room and return with an almost laughably simple device that worked exactly the way I needed it to. Of course, there were plenty of high-tech and complex items used as part of my therapy too. For example, in an attempt to quicken the regeneration of nerves that were damaged, my physical therapists employed a machine that sent electrical impulses into my arm.