Jesse, a 20-year-old patient from New Zealand sustained a T12 Spinal Cord Injury after he met with an accident at work. He decided to come to Unique Access Medical following a recommendation from his friend.
How did you get the injury?
One day, just a normal day, I went to work. The job we were doing was standing frames, lifting the walls up and this is the job we’ve done plenty of times. So we were doing that. I started lifting the walls. It was a rather big wall and unfortunately, the bottom sucked out and ended up coming back down on top of me and made my leg slip out from underneath me and my bottom hit the concrete pad. The pressure from below and from the above ended up bursting my L1 vertebrae and leaving me paralyzed from the waist down. Ever since my accident, I’ve still been heavily involved in sports and I found it as a way to help me cope with things.
How did you find about us?
Whilst I was in the rehab, a couple of friends who were actually looking into it told me about it and then I kept seeing stuff on Facebook. So I thought, why, not contact you guys and give it a go.
What treatments have you received with us?
Because L1 disfracture is too low to receive the Epidural stimulator, so what I’ve been doing is the Regenerative Treatment, also Laminectomy, where they surgically open the back side of the vertebra to release the pressure off the spinal cord and steps out into the wounded area and also my lumbar area.
What improvements have you seen during the Treatment?
Some improvements I’ve been having since LamiSpine and the Physiotherapy, everything, I have noticed different sensations with my hips and pains that I’ve never had before, pains on my sides which are good pains obviously because I don’t have pain and I want to have a feeling- also, to do better with my bladder to know when to go to the toilet. It’s all early stages at the moment. Hopefully within a few months, a lot more will come back. But also with the Physiotherapy, my strength was getting stronger like my hip flexors.
Do you think you have made the right decision coming here?
I think I made the right decision to come to Bangkok. Treatment-wise, everything went well. And like I said, there’s nothing to lose. From this opportunity, I can only gain. I definitely have, by meeting new people, having an awesome time, having this treatment done and hoping for the best in the next few months.
What do you think of the facilities and staff?
The staff here have been very accommodating to me. I came here, traveled here by myself not knowing what was on the other end, not knowing what help I was going to have but since been here. It’s been an amazing experience. This has been really really helpful, really kind if anything I need, even if I want to go out on the streets and to get some dinner, my nurse would come with me. Also the facility here, it’s really nice, really top-notch, you get your, own big apartment rooms, so can’t complain with that. Now I really enjoy it.
What are your plans after going home?
When I get home, I hope to show the Physiotherapist in New Zealand what I’ve been doing here and maybe I can carry on my rehabilitation in New Zealand like I’ve been doing here as it’s a lot different than how we do it in New Zealand. So it will be good to show them what we do here and carry on the Physiotherapist.
