Deanne Niedziela lay in a surgical Intensive Care Unit bed not far from her corner office in a tower at Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo.
On May 28 in Costa Rica, Niedziela was crushed to the ground when a tree limb randomly dropped from the jungle overhead onto her left shoulder, leaving her in a fight for her life and paralyzed from the chest down.
The 53-year-old executive director of Acute Care Services in Mission Hospital’s Neuroscience Institute needed emergency care and then nine hours of surgery followed by a medical evacuation back to Orange County. And she is convinced she’ll be able to be back at her job in the place she’s worked for 30 years.
“My office is just beyond my doors,” said the longtime nurse and now administrator of the location just beyond her ICU room. “I want to come back to work.”
To that end, she’s been doing all she can to make it happen, even if it’s her reminding doctors and nurses about evidence-based treatment that she knows she needs. While she has no control over her lower body, she knows she has to keep it functioning no matter what. To get her spine to come alive again, she undergoes physical therapy multiple times a day, among myriad other restorative treatments.
Recently, Niedziela pointed out a whiteboard at the foot of her bed where she makes sure nurses and other providers jot down her thoughts on treatments she wants to make sure she gets. Like for example, a special foot brace boot that will prevent foot drop – something that happens when the foot is paralyzed or its muscles are weakened.
She also insisted on using an ergonomic bike while she lies in bed to keep her muscles from atrophying. She started at 20 reps and worked herself up to 40, doing the exercises at least twice a day. Recently, her hands became more useable and she can feed herself again.
“I guess it’s just my personality,” she said about her determination to improve. “I’ve got this attitude. I think positively and…
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