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Featured News
Lives touched by hospital are heart and soul of foundation's annual Walk & Roll fundraiser
Keith Ferguson and Karen Skeen both know the fear and uncertainty of waking up in a hospital bed far from home.
Both suffered spinal cord injuries while traveling—Ferguson in Florida and Skeen in Mexico. And both chose Jackson’s Methodist Rehabilitation Center for their recovery.
Friends since the first grade in south Jackson, the two are now teaming up to raise funds for the Walk & Roll for Research on April 6. The fourth annual event benefits Methodist Rehab’s Wilson Research Foundation, which funds research to improve recovery after stroke, brain or spinal cord injury or loss of limb.  |
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A tumor in his head, a tornado at his office
Audrae Barnes got the heart-dropping news over the phone.
The transportation center for the Hattiesburg School District—his beloved workplace for nine years—had been hit hard by an F-4 tornado.
“One of my guys called me and said: ‘Boss, you’re going to have to get someplace else to work,’” said the director of transportation and fleet management for the district. “My office was an actual house trailer, and it was knocked off its foundation.”
Normally, such news would send the 42-year-old flying out the door, his head full of ideas to handle the crisis. But nothing has been normal since the September day that doctors found a nickel-sized tumor near his brain stem.
Like victims of the Feb. 10 storm, Barnes is still adjusting to a life upended by the unexpected. Who knew a bout of dizziness would lead to such a devastating diagnosis?
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The doctor is back in: Jackson grief counselor returns to work following a stroke
As a grief counselor, Dr. Gladys Johnson has dedicated her life to helping people in times of crisis.
But on March 17, she found herself in a crisis of her own.
“I felt very weak on my right side, my hand didn’t work very well and I couldn’t walk well,” she said. “So I drove myself to the hospital and waited in the emergency room for 45 minutes.
“I should have just called an ambulance,” she adds with a laugh. “But at that point, I didn’t know if it was a stroke or what.”
It was a stroke, one that greatly impaired movement on her right side. But the Ridgeland resident never considered giving up her calling. “It happened on a Saturday and I had work to do on Monday!” she said. “That was what I wanted to get back to because my work is my life.” |
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Stroke patient overcomes paralysis, learns to control risk factors with help of Methodist Rehab staff
As he sat slumped on his living room floor, unable to walk or speak clearly, Jeff Newman knew it was time for a turnaround. A stroke had paralyzed his right side, and the father of three realized his unhealthy habits were to blame.
“I had been over 300 pounds for probably 10 years, and I had tried to lose weight before,” said the 49-year-old owner of Newman’s Pawn Shop in Hazlehurst. “But I wasn’t dedicated. I finally said: ‘I’ll just die happy.’
“But when my stroke happened, I said: ‘Lord, if you’ll give me a chance, I’ll do what I’m supposed to do.’”
Eighteen months later, Newman’s recovery is nothing short of remarkable. He was even the patient success story for a recent stroke conference at Methodist Rehabilitation Center.
“Mr. Newman is proof of what a motivated patient can accomplish with the right resources,” said Dr. Alyson Jones, who leads the Jackson hospital’s stroke recovery team. “He’s also a good reminder of why comprehensive rehab services are so important for the nearly 5,000 Mississippians who suffer a first stroke each year.”
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Dizzy No More: Ridgeland woman overcomes vertigo via therapy that sounds like 'hocus pocus'
Odessa Whitehead was meeting friends for lunch when it happened—dizziness so severe that she blacked out in the foyer of a restaurant.“My neighbor said she turned around and all the waitresses had a hold of me. I completely went out, I didn’t know anything.”
By the time an ambulance arrived, the 82-year-old Ridgeland resident had recovered her wits and was questioning whether she needed a trip to the ER. Then she remembered a friend whose dizziness had almost made her homebound. “I thought: I can’t live like that the rest of my life,” she said. “That’s why I got on the stretcher and went to the hospital.”
Whitehead made a wise decision, said Susan Geiger, a physical therapist at Methodist Outpatient Rehabilitation Center in Flowood who is specially trained to treat balance disorders. “Too many seniors assume that dizziness is a natural part of aging, and they don’t do anything about it,” she said. “But because Mrs. Whitehead wanted to maintain her active lifestyle, she found the right resources to solve the problem." |
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