Patient stories: Tonya Johnson is fighting paralysis. Her rehab team gives her hope.

Tonya Johnson, a mother of three and an educator, puts family at the center of her life. “I’m passionate about everything that goes into family life and God is faithful,” Johnson said. “I’m here to serve and to love and I can do that no matter what position I’m in.”

In 2017, struggling with back pain, Johnson underwent lumbar surgery. Unfortunately, what should have been a routine recovery quickly became a nightmare. Johnson felt herself “stiffen up” until she could no longer move anything but her eyes.

“All of that control was stripped away overnight,” said Johnson. “It shook me to the core. That has progressed into lack of mobility. My legs work, my arms kind of work but nothing works well together. It’s very uncoordinated movements.”

Without a clear diagnosis, Johnson’s recovery has focused on treating symptoms. She was referred to outpatient therapy at Roger C. Peace Rehabilitation Hospital where she worked with physical therapist Lindsay Kicker alongside a multidisciplinary team dedicated to helping her regain mobility.

“When she presented to our clinic, she walked in the parallel bars and she had what appeared to be almost like a dystonic walking pattern, where her toes would point inward and down and her legs rotated in and she had a lot of difficulty clearing her feet,” Kicker said. “She was relying heavily on her upper extremities to walk from one end of the parallel bars to the other.”

While working with Kicker, Johnson felt hopeful for real recovery.

“She listened to me,” said Johnson. “She cared enough to go home after work and research these things.”

Kicker began working with Johnson on training the vestibular ocular reflux, essentially an exercise that involves maintaining visual focus on a stationary object while your head turns in one direction. They also worked on coordination and stabilizing her core.

“The level of care that I received made me feel more at peace,” said Johnson. “They’re exceptional with their craft. They’re exceptionable with people. It’s more about like, okay, how can we take this patient and make her the most successful that she can be?”

Kicker referred Johnson to a coworker with a strong orthopedic background who helped her develop a greater ability to pick her feet up when she was walking.

“Currently, Tanya is walking with only one of her AFOs on. She’s no longer needing her right AFO. She is walking distances of 300 ft with bilateral lost strand crutches, which are forearm crutches,” said Kicker. “And she no longer requires assistance to walk. Prisma Health’s promise is that we are here for good. We should be the voice for our patients. We should be the good for our patients. And I feel like her story is just a testament of how a well-oiled medical team can provide the good.”