NeuroRecovery Network

Client Spotlight: Gabe Magee

February 7, 2024/in Success Story

Against all odds, Gabe Magee survived a horrific car accident on November 17, 2022. While driving his truck, Gabe hit a patch of black ice, causing his truck to roll several times, throwing him to the back floorboard of his truck. Thankfully, his friend was on the scene and was able to contact 9-1-1 and keep him calm until paramedics arrived. Miraculously, Gabe was conscious when the emergency crew pulled him from the twisted metal and shattered glass. They transported Gabe to Methodist Hospital, where it was discovered that he sustained a spinal cord injury. Gabe had surgery on his neck and the surgeon removed a herniated disc from Gabe’s spine and installed a spacer, plate, and screws.

Gabe was no stranger to the nuances of neurologic conditions and disorders. Gabe was born with a Spinal Stenosis (narrowing of his vertebrae) in his neck around his C3/C4 vertebrae which happened to be where he sustained the injury from his car accident.

After a week at Methodist Hospital, Gabe began his recovery journey at Community North Rehab and was there for six weeks. His therapist at Community North Rehab highly recommended that Gabe plan to continue his therapy at NeuroHope after being released to go home. After a short waitlist, Gabe continued his rehab at NeuroHope and has been progressing wonderfully in his recovery since.

Gabe’s experience with the team at NeuroHope has been very positive. He is grateful for the support he receives and he’s thankful for the assistance NeuroHope has provided with his rehab, even after his insurance coverage ran out. Gabe loves the welcoming and encouraging environment at NeuroHope.

Client Spotlight: Patrick Sanders

February 7, 2024/in Success Story

A summer bike ride with his wife quickly turned into a tragic accident last June, when Patrick Sanders’s wheel detached from his bicycle. Patrick lost control of his bicycle, crashing face-first into the ground. Patrick was Life Lined to St. Vincent hospital and underwent surgery for his spinal cord injury. He was at St. Vincent for approximately five weeks, then transferred to RHI (Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana) for rehabilitation for additional five weeks before being released to go home. Patrick started outpatient therapy at RHI and then started NeuroHope for occupational therapy in August/September 2023.

Patrick’s goal is to be as functional as he can be with the spinal cord injury he sustained. Ultimately, Patrick would like to get everything he had before back. He realizes this may not be realistic, but that is what he is shooting for. He is working on regaining his independence.

Patrick advises that anybody starting this “odyssey” needs to be prepared and you must be mentally strong. He describes this as both a mentally and physically challenging injury and recovery process. He explains that everything changes day to day, and you can’t get down, you must constantly be positive about your outcome. Patrick tries to look to where he wants to be and every step he takes, he knows he is going to get there. He realizes it is difficult to stay positive every day, but that is the attitude he believes you must possess.

Client Spotlight: Laura Burdick

January 23, 2024/in General Blog Posts, Success Story

In the height of the Covid pandemic, yoga instructor and The Hot Room manager Laura Burdick, was traveling to Chicago to open a new yoga studio. She was thrilled to open a new Hot Room location and get people back into yoga studios, after months of quarantine. Laura’s journey to Chicago quickly turned her life upside down when her car was struck by a drunk driver. Laura sustained a spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury from this tragic accident.

After two months of healing in the ICU, Laura began her recovery at Shirley Ryan Ability Lab in Chicago. As in many recovery stories, Laura’s journey did not stop there. After a couple of months of recovery at Shirley Ryan, she left to continue her recovery in Omaha, Nebraska at QLI to participate in their in-patient brain injury rehabilitation program. She spent nine months at QLI before moving back to Indianapolis.

When Laura returned to Indianapolis, she was motivated and encouraged to relentlessly push to achieve new goals. She engaged in rehab at RHI briefly before transitioning to NeuroHope. At NeuroHope, Laura has been working with Neuro Exercise Specialist Steven Boswer for approximately a year and a half. She has been working with Steven on her tricep strength, core strength, mobility, and stability. Laura appreciates Steven’s creativity and commitment to helping her achieve her goals. Laura recently had a nerve transfer surgery on her left arm to gain more mobility and she is excited to begin OT with NeuroHope’s Occupational Therapy team soon!

Laura has become an important part of NeuroHope’s peer mentor team, and she offers health coaching services to the NeuroHope community! Laura’s advice to everyone is to take really good care of yourself, some challenge will always pop up in your life and you will wish you had been taking care of yourself. Take care of yourself because you deserve it!

NeuroHope Receives $75,000 State Grant

October 26, 2023/in General Blog Posts, Homepage

We are thrilled to announce a two-year grant from the Indiana Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Fund that will track the health and hospital re-admittance rates of NeuroHope patients.

People living with paralysis must overcome much more than the ability to move. Pressure sores, urinary tract infections, muscle contractures, and other complications from inactivity send 30% of patients to the hospital at least once per year, and cost the healthcare system thousands of dollars every time.

On November 1, we begin work with the University of Indianapolis to monitor how often NeuroHope patients are afflicted with or hospitalized with these conditions, compared to the national average of people with neurologic injury.

Providing an atmosphere of access for the programs patients need to stay healthy remains a core principle of what we do. This grant will help tell the story of the lives we change, and will strengthen our mission to revamp the standard of care in Indiana and beyond!

NeuroHope Trains at Frazier Rehabilitation Institute

November 21, 2021/in General Blog Posts, Homepage

Team NeuroHope recently spent a three-day weekend training at Frazier Rehabilitation Institute in Louisville, Kentucky with the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation NeuroRecovery Network (NRN). As a proud member of the NRN, we sometimes use Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES) at NeuroHope – many channels of electrodes placed over the skin to activate the muscular and the nervous system. NMES, as well as epidural stimulation (implanted on the spinal cord) and transcutaneous stimulation (electrodes over the nerve roots) are all part of research studies being performed at Frazier through the University of Louisville.

We are thankful to learn from some of the brightest minds in neuroresearch and to bring this therapy to Indianapolis so people recovering from spinal cord injuries have a chance at affordable, continued care!

NeuroHope: Reeve Foundation Spotlight!

March 26, 2018/in Annoucements, General Blog Posts, Homepage, Media, News

NeuroHope is the newest affiliate of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation NeuroRecovery Network (NRN), and has been featured as a spotlight program on their website / newsletter! Read the original article here!

Full text copied below:

“There is no preparation for a spinal cord injury,” says Chris Leeuw. “You wake up one morning a physically fit, able-bodied person and in the blink of an eye your life is completely transformed. When you are looking at paralysis and the potential permanence of that, that’s a situation that’s almost impossible to describe.”

Leeuw is the Founder and Executive Director of NeuroHope, the newest Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation NeuroRecovery Network® (NRN) Community Fitness and Wellness Facility in Indianapolis, IN. In August 2010, he sustained a level C4 spinal cord injury in a swimming accident that initially left the then 28-year-old paralyzed from the neck down. Like many, Leeuw was given a poor outlook.

“After a few weeks, I began to see some signs of hope,” said Leeuw. “Early recovery in my fingers and right leg gave me the inspiration I needed to do more. My time in outpatient therapy was up and I was still mostly paralyzed. I knew that with more rehab, I had a good chance of recovery.”

In 2011, he travelled to Neuroworx in South Jordan, UT, a NRN Community Fitness and Wellness Facility at the time.

“Neuroworx understood neurological recovery and had the resources and experience to help me get my life back,” said Leeuw. “It took two years to get where I am today, walking and independent. Recovery is slow and different for everyone, but much of the journey is similar for all who are hurt.”

Although Leeuw has had a good deal of recovery, his injury is still a big part of his everyday life.

“I wanted to bring the cutting-edge interventions I’d experienced at Neuroworx back to Indianapolis,” said Leeuw. “Living with a spinal cord injury is not just about recovery, it is about long-term maintenance. Every movement is a conscious effort. These recoveries are a lot more than neurologic return, a lot of it is maintaining your body afterward.”

In 2015, he opened NeuroHope as a part-time clinic in a small University of Indianapolis gym with a therapy mat and a vision.

“Right now in traditional healthcare, people get discharged from inpatient and insurance will reimburse only for a limited number of outpatient visits. Then they go home,” said Leeuw. “These individuals need more time to maximize their recovery. They need time to learn some of the skills to deal with their new life, and in most communities, there is no place for them to go. There is a void in long-term rehab options.”

Leeuw reached out for community support. Working with the Indiana state legislature, Leeuw received a nearly $1 million grant from the Indiana Spinal Cord and Brain Research Fund which allowed NeuroHope to expand. The facility moved into a larger space, bought new equipment and now sees 50 participants a year, with a hope to double that number by 2019.

“My main goals were to create a clinic where people could come for continued, affordable care and we wanted to join the NRN,” said Leeuw. “I saw first-hand the value of the NRN interventions and I wanted badly to bring that to Indiana.”

In 2017, NeuroHope’s staff was invited to begin training to become a NRN Community Fitness and Wellness facility.

“We are thrilled to be part of the NRN. It gives us a chance to reach more people and bring that level of care to Indiana for affordable private pay rates,” said Leeuw. “Healthcare is great here but we want to go beyond that so people can continue their care. This is about providing a wellness center in addition to therapy where disabled individuals, wounded veterans, stroke survivors, brain injury survivors can go to exercise to live a long, happy and healthy life.”

Leeuw continues, “An injury changes you, changes your family, and changes your character. Every family needs more help when they leave the hospital. Our hope is to be there for them as they navigate their new path, and put them in the best position to maximize their recovery and quality of life.”

NeuroHope Moving to the Incrediplex!

September 16, 2017/in Annoucements, General Blog Posts

It’s official! NeuroHope is moving October 1st! Walls are being torn down, ceilings altered, and construction is underway to provide our clinic with a new home as we ramp up and expand services for 2018.

We are proud to partner with the Incrediplex, a 4-acre sports and entertainment complex in Lawrence (6002 Sunnyside Rd.) that is building our new gym attached to their existing wellness center on the east end of their “Incredible” campus. The dream we had four years ago to open a hybrid rehabilitation / wellness clinic for people living with neurologic injury is becoming a reality this fall. In moments like these, when the work and sacrifices made over the years come to fruition, we pinch ourselves and hope we don’t wake up!

We are also honored to have been formally invited by the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation NeuroRecovery Network (NRN) to join their prestigious collaboration of rehabilitation / wellness centers. NRN sites implement state-of-the-art therapy and wellness programs tied to evidence-based practices uniquely performed and researched at the best rehabilitation centers in the world, including The Shepherd Center (Atlanta), Craig Hospital (Denver), Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation (New Jersey), and Frazier Rehabilitation Institute (Louisville).

NeuroHope will be the 12th NRN site, and the 6th independent gym in the world (not tied to a clinical hospital system) that will be participating in unique NRN programs and providing patients with affordable post-acute therapy and exercise.

We have already started to practice some of the NRN’s exclusive Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES) sessions. These pictures show two of our rockstar patients (Nathan and Mark) standing while hooked up to 12 channels of stimulation. The bottom picture shows the NRN treadmill system that will be at NeuroHope after our move!

As a NRN satellite, we will be collecting data at NeuroHope and will be teaming with researchers from the University of Indianapolis to track outcome measures and program satisfaction.

(Much more on THIS exciting development soon!)

When NeuroHope opened its doors two years ago, our vision including bringing a NRN site to Indiana. It seemed far-fetched. This fall, it too, will be a reality thanks to support from organizations like the University of Indianapolis, the OrthoIndy Foundation and our many sponsors and supporters.

We are ready!

NeuroHope at the NeuroRecovery Network Summit

May 21, 2017/in General Blog Posts

The NeuroRecovery Network (NRN) held its annual summit at Frazier Rehabilitation Institute in Louisville, Kentucky last week. NeuroHope is laying the groundwork to join the network later this year, and our staff was invited to attend and learn about the innovative therapy interventions that are being researched and implemented at NRN sites across the country and overseas.

The NRN is a collaboration of clinical sites tied to rehabilitation hospitals (Craig Hospital, Frazier Rehab Institute, Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation, Magee Rehabilitation Hospital, Ohio State University Medical Center) and independent sites aimed to continue aggressive therapy and wellness for patients after they leave the hospital system (Next Step, Courage Kenny, Journey Forward, NeuroKinex).

The inspiration to begin this unique network of sites began through the work of Dr. Susan Harkema and Dr. Andrea Behrman, whose research led to a better understanding of neuroplasticity, which is the ability of nerve cells in the central nervous system to develop new connections and learn new functions. Their work provided new evidence about the role the spinal cord plays in stepping, standing, and interpreting sensory information to re-learn tasks.

The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation (CDRF) helped fund the original research, and in the years since, the Foundation has been devoted to translating results to the clinic to help patients recovering from and living with spinal cord injury.

The NRN revolves around providing Activity-based therapy, a specific technique that activates the nervous system below the injury level and focuses on strengthening muscle weakness and neurologic recovery. In addition to specific manual techniques, a principle Activity-based intervention is Locomotor Training. Locomotor Training allows injured individuals to repetitively practice standing and stepping using body weight support. In a therapy session, the participant is suspended in a harness over a treadmill at a high speed while specially trained therapists move the legs and ankles using specific sensory cues to simulate walking. As the person gains function, improvements in sitting, standing, core strength, circulation, and bone-density may occur.

Dr. Harkema is also a pioneer in implementing epidural stimulation in her work, which made global headlines in 2011 and 2014 for restoring movement in four spinal cord injured individuals. Since then, the NRN has incorporated new methods of NeuroMuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES) at their sites to target upper extremity function, increase movement, and improve neuroplasticity. NMES uses parameters beyond typical electrical stimulation to excite the central nervous system and activate weakened muscles.

Drs. Harkema and Behrman delivered lectures at this year’s summit and worked with NRN staff members from sites around the country as they practiced evaluation and activity-based therapy techniques.

We were honored to be invited to the summit and learn from some of the best minds in the world of neuroscience. NeuroHope will soon be one of just 13 sites in the world where these innovative techniques are available.

Learn more about the NRN below:

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