Occupational therapy rehab ‘ helped me to help myself ’, says acclaimed children ’ s poet and author
Two years after having gone into hospital with COVID-19 , where he was placed into an induced coma for 40 days , Michael Rosen , acclaimed children ’ s author and poet , inspired the occupational therapy community by sharing his recovery story in his Plenary session , ‘ My very own bear hunt : a journey back from COVID ’.
The ‘ game changer ’ for Michael ’ s first leg of his recovery journey , while he was delirious and resisting coming out of his coma , was his wife Emma , who played recordings of their children to him on her phone .
The next step was Michael experiencing both occupational therapy and physiotherapy for the first time on the geriatric ward he ’ d been transferred to for his first round of recovery .
Unable to stand up and gasping for air , as he was experiencing severe breathing difficulties , and trying to ‘ mend ’ his disturbed mind , as he didn ’ t understand what was going on , Michael told delegates he became extremely unhappy and desperately wanted to go home . Which of course he couldn ’ t .
From here , he was sent to St Pancras Rehabilitation Hospital . ‘ Emma really sold this to me … and said they would teach me how to walk again ,’ he said . ‘ I just thought , well that ’ s a nice thing to say , but it isn ’ t going to happen .’
Referring to the rehabilitation centre as ‘ wonderful ’ and ‘ the opposite of Amy Winehouse … I will go to rehab , yes , yes , yes !’, Michael described how the therapists ‘ taught me everything ’ on an ‘ incredible adventure and experience ’.
He added : ‘ I can remember that first experience , where a group of you came to my bedside … and you said you ’ re going to get up now , and me just thinking of course I ’ m not , I can ’ t do that .’
But over the following three weeks , with what he calls ‘ a hard cop , soft cop ’ method from the therapists , he made remarkable progress . ‘ I [ got ] myself into a mindset that this is all about me getting better ,’ he reflected .
In rehab , and with the support of and exercises from his therapists , he progressed from not being able to stand up , let alone walk , Michael Rosen to using a Zimmer frame , a wheelchair and then a walking stick , which he humorously labelled ‘ Sticky McStickstick ’ and has based his new children ’ s book on .
And after three weeks , he was able to make the walk from the ambulance to his front door without using a walking aid .
‘ At each stage [ of the rehab journey ] I thought maybe that ’ s it now for the rest of my life ? But of course , you weren ’ t having that ! Through all these stages [ you ] made it clear that this was about me becoming independent .’
‘ That word is very , very important to me and I remember formulating it that the medics had helped me to get better , but you were helping me to help myself .’
Michael is now taking five , 30-minute walks a week . ‘ I owe you folks so much ,’ he concluded emotionally . ‘ Thank you .’
At each stage [ of the rehab journey ] I thought maybe that ’ s it now for the rest of my life ? But of course , you weren ’ t having that ! Through all these stages [ you ] made it clear that this was about me becoming independent .”
Powering breakthroughs
Society needs to redefine what ‘ getting better ’ means . Medics give people the ‘ foundations ’ to get better , while occupational therapists and other allied health professional give people the ‘ methods ’ to get better . If people miss out on that they may not actually get better and run the risk of remaining stuck in a ‘ mid-way place ’, neither debilitated or better .
16 OTnews July 2022