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When Allentown resident Matt Hanvey woke up one Saturday last November, he thought he was coming down with the flu. Achy and tired, he skipped his son’s soccer game to take a nap on the couch. “When I woke up, my hands and feet were tingling,” he says. “I tried to stand up and crumpled. I thought I was having a stroke.” Hanvey was rushed to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with a rare disorder, Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS). Within days, he was paralyzed from the neck down. Hanvey’s steps that Saturday were the last time he would walk on his own for more than seven months.
Guillain-Barré attack
GBS triggers an autoimmune attack of the peripheral nervous system – nerves outside the brain and spinal cord. It can cause debilitating weakness, sometimes causing near-total paralysis. Most patients eventually recover, but the process takes time and significant rehabilitation. All told, Hanvey spent more than 200 days in inpatient rehab, beginning at the acute care unit at Lehigh Valley Hospital–Cedar Crest. “When I first met Matt, he was completely bed-bound,” says Mollie Johnston, PT, DPT, acute rehabilitation provider. “But he was very motivated from the second I walked in the room.” “I had a great support system, and we were never negative,” Hanvey says. “We knew that most GBS patients fully recover. It was just a matter of time, patience and putting in the work.”
Resolve to recover
Hanvey moved to the LVHN Inpatient Rehabilitation Center–Cedar Crest, where he had physical and occupational therapy three hours a day. His rehabilitation team was committed to helping him return to his life – a career as a successful vice president; his kids’ sporting events; running in the Lehigh Parkway. “At the heart of it was a guy who kept pushing himself and pushing us to be our best,” says Timothy Haring, PT, DPT, therapy manager. “There were some hard days, and he’d come back tired. But Matt never gave less than 115 percent.” By March, Hanvey was ready for the transitional skilled unit (TSU) at Lehigh Valley Hospital–17th Street. There, he met Stacy Kerr, physical therapy assistant. “Everything changed once I met Stacy,” Hanvey says. “She was the most encouraging, positive person.”
Progressive improvement
When Kerr first started working with Hanvey, he was unable to walk or stand, and had to use a sliding board to move from his bed to a chair. But his determination never wavered. “Matt is the most positive, inspirational, determined, hardworking, stubborn patient I’ve ever met,” Kerr says. “He wouldn’t stop. If I gave him an exercise to do in his room, every time I passed by, he’d be working on it.” Hanvey progressed to a LiteGait Harness, which allowed him to walk with most of his weight suspended. At first, the device took on 75 percent of his body weight, but each day he needed less help. Soon, he needed only a walker. “As a therapist, you try to instill in your patients to do the best they can with what they’ve got,” Kerr says. “Matt demonstrated that every day. It was like Christmas working with him. Every day he could do something he couldn’t do before. It was like opening a new gift.”
“The TSU was my home for more than 80 days,” Hanvey says. “Every single nurse, therapist and support person was so encouraging. They were my biggest cheerleaders.”
Walking away
In June, Hanvey finally walked out of the TSU under his own power, using only a walker. “It was surreal,” he says. “There are peaks and valleys with GBS, and I know there will be more valleys, but that was definitely a peak.” Following discharge, Hanvey started outpatient rehabilitation. There, he works with Sandra Tremblay, PT, DPT, Neuro Rehab Program Coordinator. He continues to build strength and stability – with the goal of leaving walkers and canes behind and getting back to running. “We can help motivate our patients, but unless they have it within them to follow through, they won’t have the gains we see in Matt,” Tremblay says. “He’s made them because of his family support, his therapists, but mostly his drive to return to where he wants to go.”
– Jason Kohn