Valerie seemed to have it all – she was an attractive, outgoing high school sophomore, star athlete and honor student with lots of friends. Until one day, during a soccer game on Jan. 18, 2007, when Valerie jumped into the air to head the ball. What she hit wasn’t the soccer ball – it was an opponent’s shoulder. The collision temporarily knocked Valerie unconscious. It was an event that soon would change her life. “I don’t remember anything about the accident and very little about the next few days,” Valerie said.

“When the collision occurred, I immediately went out on the field to examine Valerie,” said Randy Boardman, physical therapist and athletic trainer with Verde Valley Medical Center, who was covering the game. “She awoke quickly and said she was sore and achy. Besides that, her only symptom was affected balance.” Keeping an eye on her, Boardman allowed Valerie to watch the game from the sidelines with her grandparents – until her arm began twitching.

From Waiting to Working
Boardman immediately performed a concussion check and instructed the family to transport Valerie to VVMC’s Emergency department. After a CT scan, physicians determined she had suffered a concussion and needed neurological attention. She was rushed by ambulance to Flagstaff Medical Center. Because Valerie also had suffered a traumatic brain injury, her body now was reacting with seizures. Physicians at FMC made a decision to induce Valerie’s body into a state of coma to stop the seizures. For the next 11 days, physicians kept close watch over Valerie’s condition, gradually bringing her out of the coma, until it was determined she was no longer at risk for seizures and could be released to home.

The Road to Recovery
Head injuries can affect the whole person – motor, speech, facial expressions, memory, thought process and emotions. Valerie was referred to VVMC’s Outpatient Therapy Program, and on Jan. 30, the day after returning home, she went in for her first day of therapy. “When I first saw how much Valerie’s injury had affected her, I didn’t know how long it was going to take her to return to her previous level of functioning,” said Lisa Zublionis, physical therapist with VVMC, who spent more than two months helping Valerie recover. “When she arrived, she was brought in a wheelchair as she was unsteady on her feet and it was unsafe for her to walk alone. However, she had two essential things going for her: she was a young athlete in incredibly good shape, and she wanted to get back to who she was before the accident. Valerie refused to accept anything less.”

Following the Plan
With this determination, Valerie began physical and speech therapy. Her physical therapy sessions worked on strengthening her legs, improving her flexibility and regaining her balance. Although she wanted to go running during the first few sessions, she reluctantly took her therapists’ advice and waited a few weeks until her balance improved. Soon, she was sprinting on the treadmill and performing rigorous exercises that mimicked what she would be doing on the soccer field. During the same time period, Valerie also was undergoing intensive speech therapy.

“When I first saw her, Valerie almost reminded me of a robot. She had no facial expression, she didn’t smile, her eyes were distant and she spoke in a monotone voice. It was obvious she had experienced significant memory loss,” said Kim Mills, M.A.E.D., M.S., C.C.C.-S.L.P., speech therapist at VVMC. “Her injuries had slowed her thought processes, and she had trouble thinking and recalling clearly.” To help Valerie return to clarity of thought and verbal expression, Mills and other speech therapists worked on basic memory tasks, language issues, reasoning skills and more. A major motivator and turning point in therapy for Valerie was the thought of missing her junior/senior prom – that simply was not going to happen. A spirit of determination once again took over and Valerie regained enough speech and memory to return to school part time. While she attended summer school to catch up to her peers, and would be entering her junior year, she opted to challenge herself by taking senior level classes and received some of the highest scores in the class.

Finding Success
Following two months of physical therapy and five months of speech therapy at VVMC, Valerie was not only back to life – she was thriving. At the end of her sophomore year, she had met her rehabilitation goals and was able to attend her prom. This past summer, Valerie swam competitively and is the new record holder for the mile swim in her age group. Her progress was remarkable, and according to Zublionis, “Valerie went from just barely being able to walk to being a star athlete again.”

“Everyone on the VVMC EntireCare Rehab & Sports Medicine team really helped me get back to my normal life,” Valerie said. “They were great motivators, like my own personal cheerleaders, and I looked forward to going to therapy every day. In the end, I made a lot of friends in the EntireCare department, and I’m forever grateful for what they did for me.”