Lansing’s Sarah and Steve Murray talk about Sarah’s experience with the spinal cord injury she suffered this past spring


A welcome home ... Sarah Murray of Lansing is pictured above the day she returned home from Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, located in Chicago, IL, following her spinal cord injury she suffered in mid-March of this year. The flowers she is holding in the photo are from Laurie Van Brocklin and Julie Welsh, who worked with Sarah at Kee High School in Lansing. Submitted photo.

Foundation in family ... Steve and Sarah Murray of Lansing renewed their wedding vows on their 10th anniversary a couple years ago, with their family in attendance, as pictured above. The celebration was held at their home in Lansing, where this photo was taken. Pictured, left to right, are Steve and Sarah with their three children, Westen, Jenna and Cade, who have each provided their own source of foundational support since Sarah suffered a spinal cord injury in March this year. Submitted photo.

Rehab at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab ... Sarah Murray of Lansing is pictured here at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, in Chicago, IL, where she was transfered to in late April for physical therapy and rehabilitation after the spinal cord injury she suffered in mid-March of this year. After six weeks of rehabilitation at the AbilityLab - described as “the global leader in physical medicine and rehabilitation for adults and children with the most severe, complex conditions”, Sarah was able to return home to Lansing, where she continues her recovery with the support of her family, friends and the greater communities of where she and her family live, and beyond. Submitted photo.

by Julie Berg-Raymond

On a recent afternoon in late September, Sarah and Steve Murray, of Lansing, sat down and talked about Sarah’s recent experience with spinal cord injury (SCI), and about her ongoing recovery and rehabilitation - being undertaken with the help of professionals in the field, and with the loving support of family, friends and the wider community.

The conversation took place at Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) in Waukon, where Sarah would soon bring to completion more than six weeks of treatment for pressure wounds - a fairly common complication among persons with SCI (it is variously estimated that between 50 and 80 percent of persons with SCI develop a pressure wound at least once in their lives). The conversation took place outside; it was a beautiful day, and Sarah and Steve wanted to get out and enjoy the sunshine.

“The care (at VMH) has been so personal and so relationship-oriented,” Sarah says. “And it’s close to home, so I’ve had lots of visitors.” She and Steve make special mention of Dr. (Dave) Schwartz and the staff who have provided her with care during her stay. “The relationships that I’ve made here have made all the difference,” she says.

The impetus for this particular conversation, on this particular day at the end of September, is that September is recognized as Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Month. There are roughly 300,000 people with spinal cord injury and 18,000 new diagnoses each year in the United States, according to the UAB (University of Alabama-Birmingham) National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Month provides an opportunity to raise awareness, advocate for change and celebrate the achievements of those living with SCI (unitedspinal.org).

“I’m an open book,” Sarah says. “You can ask me anything.”

ACCIDENT
Sarah and Steve and their son, Westen, 12 - “going on 38,” Sarah laughs - live high above the Mississippi River, overlooking the Black Hawk Bridge. Their daughter, Jenna, 23, has moved back in with them to help with cleaning and cooking and getting Westen to school. “She has been a blessing,”

Sarah says. Their son, Cade, 22, currently lives in Ankeny.

On a Friday evening in mid-March, the couple ended a busy week with one of their semi-regular date nights, enjoying a romantic dinner at an area restaurant. When they got home, Steve went in the house, and Sarah walked over to look at the river and to check out the equipment in place for construction of the new bridge across the Mississippi River.

“We think I probably slipped on some frosty mulch,” she says. “And I tumbled off the four-foot retaining wall in our yard. We think I went face-first and then my body flipped, breaking my C-5 and C-6 vertebrae.”

From inside the house, Steve recalls, “I heard ‘help!’ I tried to figure out where it was coming from.” He thought it might be coming from outside, so he went out to look. When he found Sarah, he knew something was very wrong.

“She said she couldn’t feel her legs or move her arms,” he says. “I told her, ‘I have to get my phone and call 911.’” He brought back a blanket and covered her up. “The EMTs and ambulance were there within five to 10 minutes,” he says.

“I know all these people,” Sarah says of the EMTs that were on the scene. “I have their kids in school. That was very comforting.” Specifically, she adds, Joe Manning’s presence helped. “It was very comforting to see his face.” Turning to Steve, she says, “And I know Mike Brennan was very comforting to you.” Brittany Darling and Conrad Rosendahl are among other people she recalls, gratefully, from that night.

An emergency medical helicopter from Gundersen Medical Center in La Crosse, WI, which has the only trauma center in the immediate area, landed in the Lansing ballfield and took Sarah back to La Crosse, while Steve drove to the hospital. Westen was not at home; he was already staying with Sarah’s parents that night.

INJURY AND TREATMENTS
Sarah describes the injuries to her C-5 and C-6 vertebrae as resulting in one of them essentially “sitting on top” of the other. In a surgery conducted the day after her accident, she says, “they went in through my throat, put the vertebrae back in place, and fused them with a metal plate. My neck is probably the strongest part of my body right now.”

Three or four days after her surgery, Sarah developed pneumonia. She was intubated and a tracheotomy was performed - which created an opening in her neck into the windpipe to help her breathe.

The ultimate goal was to get Sarah to Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago, IL as soon as possible; but she had to get out of ICU first, and she had to be healthy enough. She was eventually admitted to Shirley Ryan April 24.

Shirley Ryan AbilityLab is “the global leader in physical medicine and rehabilitation for adults and children with the most severe, complex conditions - from traumatic brain and spinal cord injury to stroke, amputation and cancer-related impairment” (sralab.org).

Sarah spent six weeks there, with intensive occupational and physical therapy, and as part of “a community of people with spinal injuries,” she says. Steve took Westen to Chicago every Friday afternoon; they stayed, for free, at a hotel two blocks away from the AbilityLab.

While Sarah was in Chicago, Steve built her a new bathroom (with help from their oldest son, Cade), and found a vertical lift that can carry her from outside up to the porch and into the house. With donations made to the family, Steve purchased a 2005 wheelchair-accessible van.

“We wouldn’t have been able to do the bathroom renovations if it weren’t for our local contractors,” Sarah says. Among the contractors who made the new bathroom possible: Matt Troendle (shower and plumbing); and Teddy Walleser (concrete pad for vertical lift). “They were just so generous with their time and resources,” she says.

To read the full article, pick up the Wednesday, October 2, 2024 print edition of The Standard or subscribe to our e-edition or print edition by clicking here.