Christy’s Story: Resilience & Reinvention after Spinal Cord Injury

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Stories of Your Impact: As a nonprofit organization, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab relies on the generosity of donors to offer patients world-class care and quality-of-life programs that help them return to the lives and people they love. Through this series, we celebrate patients’ progress made possible by your kindness and compassion. Thank you for helping them thrive!

For Christy, “always on the go” wasn’t just a saying — it was her way of life. With a busy career in the hotel industry, an energetic spirit, and a love for tackling new challenges, the 56-year-old thrived on motion, connection and a full schedule. Even on weekends, Christy was up at 6 am for a workout — a run along Chicago’s lakefront or a long walk outdoors.

One day, she was running errands on her bike when she was struck by a car in the crosswalk. The impact threw her into the middle of the street, resulting in a broken ankle, a broken neck and, most significantly, a spinal cord injury (SCI). Her SCI was incomplete, meaning that some nerve signals could still travel between the brain and body.

Christy spent seven days in intensive care at a trauma center near her home. Her nurse insisted she come to Shirley Ryan AbilityLab for rehabilitation as soon as possible. A quick web search by Christy’s partner, Chris, convinced them both to follow that advice.

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When she arrived at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab for inpatient care, Christy couldn’t move her right side and had limited capacity on her left. She wore a neck brace and a cast on her left leg. Despite the severity of her injuries, Christy recalls seeing a wheelchair in her room and wondering why it was there.

“I'm a glass-half-full person,” Christy explained. “My mindset is positivity, and I try to seek this in all aspects of life. I guess in my head, I never thought I’d need a wheelchair.”

It wasn’t until Christy needed to get dressed for her first physical therapy session that she began to feel the gravity of her situation.

“I had no idea how I was going to move from the bed to the closet to get my clothes, let alone put them on,” said Christy. “I slowly realized that it was going to take a lot more than a few days in bed to get my life back to normal. This was going to be really hard.”

After helping Christy change her clothes, her physical therapist, Rob, suggested that they begin the first day’s session with walking. Christy couldn’t imagine how that was possible, as she had no strength in her right arm and still wore a leg cast. However, Rob had a plan. He attached a padded-arm support with a handgrip to the right side of an upright walker, enabling Christy to rest her right forearm in the cuff and hold onto the walker with her left hand, while she hopped on her right foot.

It wasn’t easy but, after an hour, Christy learned how to use the adapted walker. She could take just five steps before she had to sit down and rest, but those steps were the first of many milestones to come.

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Setting weekly goals appealed to Christy’s organized and competitive nature. In occupational therapy, she worked on hand and arm articulation and dexterity. She began with small tasks, like moving blocks from one place to another, and progressed to pulling her hair into a scrunchie and inserting her contact lenses. In physical therapy, she focused on building strength, balance and stamina.

Re-learning how to do basic tasks sometimes felt overwhelming, but Christy found comfort in her care team’s patience and encouragement. Whether it was her occupational therapist coming in early so she could practice tying her shoes, or the person who brought her meals asking if she was feeling OK when she didn’t eat much, Christy felt surrounded by kindness and compassion.

“They cared for me the way you would care for someone you loved,” Christy said.

The staff extended that kindness to Chris, too. He came in every day at lunch to check on Christy. Then, he would return at night to check on her before she went to bed. Christy had a staff psychologist as part of her multidisciplinary care team, and the psychologist even pulled Christy’s family aside to see if they needed any support.

Five weeks after arriving at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Christy had made enough gains to leave inpatient care. While she still needed a wheelchair, she could walk a complete lap in the ability lab with a walker; transfer from a wheelchair to a car on her own; feed herself; brush her teeth; put on her socks; and tie her shoes.

Although she was sad to say goodbye to her care team — people she now considered great friends — she was eager to continue her recovery in the hospital’s Streeterville DayRehab Center.

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Based on the progress she had made so far, Christy’s Shirley Ryan AbilityLab physician predicted that she could regain — and, with an active lifestyle, sustain — 80-90% of her motor function. To Christy, that was the motivation she needed to dig in deep at DayRehab.

Inherently social and outgoing, Christy found DayRehab to be the perfect fit. The group activities, rigorous rehabilitation sessions and supportive environment helped her thrive. She committed to intensive physical and occupational therapy three full days a week for three months, quickly forming close friendships with fellow patients who kept her motivated. Her willingness to push herself led to rapid physical gains.

After just one month, Christy no longer needed to wear the neck brace nor use her wheelchair. She traded her cast for a boot and began focusing more intensively on walking. She spent hours in the overhead harness, relearning how to move forward, backward and sideways — and reclaiming her independence step by step.

Christy appreciated how her therapists always challenged her to do more, whether it was increasing the weight she lifted each week or assigning “homework” for her days off. She tackled those assignments at home with the same determination she brought to DayRehab, from walking with her walker to practicing hand exercises like picking up coins, putting washers on screws and working with clay to improve dexterity.

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Following her completion of DayRehab, Christy spent a month in Arizona. When she returned to Chicago, she continued in outpatient therapy for eight months at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab to address lingering dexterity issues in her hand and arm.

Despite her progress, Christy missed working out in the gym as she had prior to her SCI. She sought advice about what she could do to stay active, and her physical therapist recommended Pilates.

“It was the greatest gift ever,” Christy said. She’s been doing Pilates twice a week ever since — three years and counting. It’s helped her stay strong and active.

Christy used to run along Chicago’s lakefront two mornings a week, but now she’s considered at risk for falls. To help rebuild coordination between her arms and legs, her Shirley Ryan AbilityLab team also encouraged her to take up swimming — a safe and effective way to relearn cross-body movement. She participated in aquatic therapy at the flagship hospital, and on her days off from DayRehab, Chris took her to a local gym with a pool to continue practicing.

Now, Christy swims three times per week, and has found a community of women to swim with in the mornings. It’s become her new favorite activity.

Although Christy has made a remarkable recovery, her right side — including her hand, arm, shoulder and ankle — remain weaker than her left. Some days, her arm and leg are slower due to cold weather or stress. She works out four days per week and stretches every morning to stay strong, flexible and mobile.

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Three months after the accident, Christy returned to her beloved career in the hotel industry. Now retired, she hopes to give back by becoming a peer mentor through Shirley Ryan AbilityLab’s Henry B. Betts, MD, LIFE Center, a state-of-the-art multimedia resource that supports patients and families during rehabilitation and the transition back to the community.

In the meantime, she continues to support the organization as a donor and fundraiser — most notably by participating with a team of friends in SkyRise Chicago, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab’s annual stairclimbing event at Willis Tower that raises money for the hospital’s quality-of-life programs.

Christy holds a deep sense of gratitude for her experience at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, where she felt truly cared for — not just as a patient, but as a person. Her care team embraced her, her family and her friends during one of the scariest times in her life, making sure she never felt alone. It’s a community to which Christy still feels deeply connected.

“Now, just by seeing an email from Shirley Ryan AbilityLab touches my heart because they took care of me at the worst time in my life,” said Christy. “It’s an emotional thing because I don’t know any place that creates miracles for people like Shirley Ryan AbilityLab does. I’m a better person because I was there.”

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