PHYSICAL THERAPY A LIFESAVER TO CAPE MAN

A stroke three and one-half years ago left Dennis Byrnes paralyzed on his left side from the shoulder down, in a wheelchair, and unable to take care of even his most basic needs.

Physical therapy has taught Byrnes to "work with what he has left," he said, as he walked with a cane into his therapy session this week.

Physical therapists from Southeast Missouri Hospital, Human Performance Center, Physical Therapy Associates and St. Francis Medical Center are celebrating physical therapy week this week to help bring attention to the work they do.

St. Francis's physical therapy department is hosting an open house Thursday from 3-4:30 p.m. for the public to see what is going on.

While physical therapy patients know the work is for their own good, Byrnes said they are often tough on their therapists. His therapist is Pattie Ammon, physical therapist clinical coordinator at St. Francis.

"Physical therapy patients call their therapists PT-pain and torture, or physical terrorists," he said. "It's not their fault, but it's hard to accept that you are like a 5-year-old when you are 44.

"Just doing physical therapy helps. At least you are doing something. You regain some control."

In 1988, Byrnes was a successful 41-year-old hotel executive in Pittsburgh, Pa. He had returned home from a three-week vacation in Florida and was glancing through the mail at his home office. When he stood up from the desk, he felt dizzy.

"The next thing I remember I was lying on the floor and couldn't get up. I had no pain, but I had a strange sensation on the right side of my head," Byrnes recalled.

"I couldn't get up. I didn't know the whole left side of my body was paralyzed."

Byrnes wife and son were not home at the time.

"I heard the phone ringing and tried to swing my belt over the door knob to pull myself up."

About that time, a neighbor shouted to him from outside the window, asking if he needed help.

"I tried to holler back, yes. That's when I realized my speech was slurred," he said. "She said it sound's like he's had a stroke."

The neighbor was right. Byrnes suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. "The blood vessels in my head just burst."

After 23 days in intensive care and another 10 days in the hospital, Byrnes was transferred to a rehabilitation hospital near Pittsburgh, where he stayed five weeks.

"I never knew anything about strokes except it was something that happened to old people," Byrnes said. "I sure didn't think it was something that could happen to me.

"I couldn't do anything: I couldn't walk, I couldn't eat, I couldn't move myself. I had to learn everything over again."

His speech was not affected by the stroke.

Lifting his limp left arm, Byrnes said: "Odds are this will never work. Brain cells do not regenerate."

After a few months of physical therapy, therapists discovered Byrnes could swing his left leg from the hip. This limited movement meant he could learn to walk.

"They fitted me with this brace. My left leg is basically stiff, dead weight. But I can use it to support myself while I take a step with my right leg."

As a district manager for Holiday Inns in Pennsylvania and part of New York, Byrnes' job required a lot of driving. "Getting in and out of a car was one big chore, still is. I kept my job for about three months, but finally they had to get someone who could get around."

About a year after the stroke, Byrnes and his family moved to Cape Girardeau, where his mother and sister live. He had attended Notre Dame High School and Southeast Missouri State University here in the 1960s.

"I still have a lot of problems."

Currently, Byrnes is working to improve his movement skills.

"I get back there on the track with little old ladies in walkers and we drag race," he said. "Since I've been here, I've increased my speed four times. I can't tell a difference, but my mother and sister can tell. They have done a wonderful job for me."