HCHD Patient Learns to Walk, then Dance

One moment, 38-year old David Lee Sontchi was enjoying a fun family vacation in Lima, Peru; the next, he was battling to survive a physically devastating motorcycle accident.

The April 28, 2000 accident left David with a traumatic brain injury, internal bleeding, a ruptured spleen, wrist fracture, fracture between fourth and fifth vertebrae, shoulder separation and a bruised lung. Any of these injuries individually would be difficult for many to deal with, but combined they were nearly impossible for David to overcome.

David's story is memorable because he was flown back to Houston from Peru in a Medical Jet. The high-tech aircraft was chartered by an influential Houstonian to help David receive the high-quality acute care he needed. The morning of May 5, David was admitted to the Harris County Hospital District's Ben Taub General Hospital; however, David's physical journey was far from over. In addition to emergency surgery, David would undergo long-term physical rehabilitation and numerous followup treatments after awakening from a lengthy coma.

The most critical part of David's journey toward recovery began in late June when he was transferred to the inpatient rehabilitation unit of Quentin Mease Community Hospital. At the time, he was unable to verbalize much and was only physically able to roll himself over in bed. It was suspected David would always need someone close by to assist him due to his particular injuries.

"The doctors initially were cautioning me that he might be paralyzed on his left side," said David's wife Ana Sontchi, describing the staff's initial assessments.

"The ultimate goal for patients like David," said Larry Hixon, rehabilitation services coordinator, "is to help them become community ambulatory - get around in their community environment with little or no assistance."

David would spend the next five weeks working three to five hours a day on range of motion exercises, climbing and descending stair steps with supervision, working with weights, trying to regain the substantial loss of use in his arms and legs, and re-establishing his sense of balance.

"Our initial goal was to get him to a point where he would just be able to get up in bed, in and out of chairs, and standing for three to five minutes on his own," said Hixon. "But he rapidly exceeded those goals and was able to walk 150 feet with a rolling walker by the time he was discharged. He's a great example of how much patients can do when they get the proper treatment and put their minds and bodies into it."

"Now, it's a big, big change," said Ana Sontchi. "He's much further along, stronger than I would have imagined. I'm really happy for that."

Getting to Dance, Again

"He is amazing, and has been great to work with," said Heather Logemann, physical therapy clinical coordinator. "It's important for patients like David to have family support once they become an outpatient, to help urge patients to work at their rehab exercises daily and be reminded how important it is to do the basic things like getting up and down. His family is great. They've been real supportive of David and help keep him motivated and active.

"We learned during his rehab that he and his wife used to enjoy Salsa dancing," continued Logemann. "So, during one of our rehabilitation sessions, I asked them to bring in some CDs and we all danced. I think it was really important Mrs. Sontchi see her husband doing something `normal,' recreating some of the dance steps and motions he used to make, and just having some fun with his physical rehab."

"He really liked it," said Ana. "He was a great dancer before the accident. And to see him get up and dance, not great, but enjoying himself, I loved that."

Quentin Mease Community Hospital houses a comprehensive rehabilitation inpatient unit, outpatient specialty physical medicine and rehabilitation clinics, and an electrodiagnostic service. The service provides physiatric directed treatment programs for long-term rehabilitation inpatients with follow-up as outpatients. This includes complete evaluations, test procedures and comprehensive treatment; common conditions treated include spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, multiple extremity trauma, and amputation.

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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