Lisa was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension, a serious condition that meant her heart had to work extra hard to pump blood around her lungs. Doctors proposed a lung transplant, and Lisa recalls how she felt when she woke up two months after her operation.

“The first thing the doctors said to me was that there were complications with the transplant surgery; spinal strokes had resulted in a spinal cord injury which meant that I would be unable to feel anything from my chest down. They went on to say that I would no longer be able to walk, that I would need full-time care, I may not be able to work again, or have children.”

Lisa felt alone and out of place in hospital, the other patients in her ward did not have spinal cord injuries, and it was another six months before she was able to move to the spinal unit at Prince of Wales Hospital.

“All I wanted to see was someone who had experienced a spinal cord injury, to understand how I could try to recover and what my future would look like.”

Whilst Lisa is a paraplegic who mostly uses a wheelchair, NeuroMoves exercise therapy has helped Lisa to strengthen her legs to achieve her goals of using a walker, then using a walking cane. And most importantly, to achieve her ultimate goal of recently walking down the aisle on her wedding day.

With the support of the NeuroMoves team, Lisa continues to set and reach her recovery goals to enable her to return to doing many of the activities she enjoyed before her injury.

Through her connections with SCIA, Lisa has also found employment working for the Wheelchair Book and Ride team and the EmployAbility team as an Employment Coach at Spinal Cord Injuries Australia.

Lisa is a real-life example of how the programs delivered by Spinal Cord Injuries Australia provide multiple layers of support to people with spinal and neurological conditions; support that is needed and continues at every stage of their life journey.

SCIA exists to help people with spinal and neurological conditions to thrive and to live the life they choose. Like Lisa, all our clients deserve the opportunity to live their best life. Please make a donation today to help us provide a lifetime of support to those who rely on us now, and those who will rely on us in the future.

“I remember meeting Dan and his dog from SCIA’s Peer and Family Support team. I love dogs so we made an instant connection. Dan told me about his own experience with spinal cord injury and it normalised things. To see him in a wheelchair and still have his independence gave me hope.”

Before leaving hospital, Lisa sought out a support coordinator with knowledge and understanding of spinal cord injury.

“Sofia from Spinal Cord Injuries Australia is a fantastic support coordinator who as supported me to get everything I needed put in place before I got home and pointed me in the right direction of getting back into therapy and rehab to support my recovery.

 

After giving me a number of options for physical therapy and knowing that I didn’t want to go with anything generic, I decided to give SCIA’s NeuroMoves exercise and therapy service a go.”

Lisa has attended NeuroMoves for over two years and credits their therapists with helping her to prove her initial medical prognosis wrong.