Whether they got hurt during a sports game, had a fall at work or suffered extensive head injuries in an automobile accident, millions of Americans live with a disability after an injury or illness. Therapists often play a tremendous role in helping people recover and regain their strength.

During National Rehabilitation Week, area hospitals and therapy centers put an emphasis on the hard work and dedication their patients give when it comes to recovery. Locally, several groups honored patients for their contributions. HealthSouth Rehabilitation and St. Francis Medical Center both held ceremonies Wednesday honoring rehab patients.

Bill Logan, with HealthSouth, said the patients honored had "the dedication necessary to be able to come back from an injury or illness."

Jo Ann Jaco, senior recreation therapist at St. Francis Medical Center, said rehab therapy can be incredibly intense. Some patients have amazing stories about their recoveries from brain injuries or strokes.

"Some of them are inspirations to other patients," she said. "They are successes. It shows that people with disabilities can be a part of the community."

Here are the stories of two patients who recovered after therapy:

Kate Loos, 17, of Jackson

A sports injury in mid-December sidelined Loos for the remainder of the basketball season last year. During the game, Loos went for a lay-up, and another player pushed her from behind. She fell and instantly felt her knee pop.

Doctors determined that she'd torn an interior ligament in her knee and would need surgery. And after surgery, she got a strict regiment of therapy.

The therapists were honest with Loos about how much work it would take for her to recover fully from her injury.

"They didn't baby me at all. They pushed really hard and said it would take a lot of blood, sweat, hard work and tears," the Jackson High School senior said.

And that's exactly what it took for her to complete the therapy in five months instead of the usual six or seven months most patients require.

Loos had individual therapy sessions three times a week and then had to complete exercises on her own at the gym. She knew that if she didn't work hard or do the exercises, it would only lengthen the time until she could get back in the game.

Now she lifts weights three times a week and does the exercises her therapist suggested in addition to some agility work, and she wears a knee brace.

"I'm not quite up to the speed or strength I was before the injury," Loos said. But she's certain that she will be in time for basketball season.

"I think if you put your mind to it, then anything's possible," she said.

Kenneth Simmons, 44, of Cape Girardeau

Trying to break his fall, Kenneth Simmons ended up injuring his right arm so badly it needed surgery.

Simmons, a construction supervisor, stepped off a bench onto a round saw handle at a work site in April 2002, causing his foot to slip from under him. Simmons flung his right arm back to catch himself and tore three of the four tendons from the rotator cuff on impact.

Five months after surgery, his doctor diagnosed a recurring tear and slated him for another operation. He's been in therapy since February. The more intensive sessions ended in July, but he still goes twice a week to work at regaining lost strength.

He wore a sling for 9 1/2 weeks after the second operation and suffered muscle deterioration.

Though he returned to work less than a week after his first operation, the second surgery penned him at home for 15 weeks. Some of the most excruciating pains were not in the shoulder itself, but in the details.

"I'm right handed," he said, "Going to the restroom is an ordeal. So is writing."

But, Simmons said, "I was bound and determined it wasn't going to beat me."

Staff writer Robert Goodier contributed to this report.