Sandra Edwards Finds New Joy in Her Physical Therapy after Her Accident - Essay Example

Headline: Sandra Edwards finds new joy in her physical therapy after her accident By: She exposes her vulnerabilities for everyone to see. The serrated scar on the left cheek, One eye that is a bit slow than the other, A shrunken tip of her “small arm” Sandra Edwards stands all these in a busy gym. She is lying on a bench, where everyone in the gym can see, during her massages for scar tissue under her physical therapy. The fingers of her trainer go down the scars — similar to the way a bus-seat bar took more than nine months ago when it chopped off her left arm and eye. That terrible accident got national attention, pushing Sandra into the eye of the public. Everywhere, people talked about her story. A number of them used Sandra’s resilience as inspiration to go through their misfortunes. On top of being so inspirational to many people, Sandra’s greatest impact goes to a lady who was firstly skeptical. Sheri Stevens, her physical therapist, did not have expectations for bonding with Sandra. However, over the last seven months, the two ladies have established a special bond. And through distressing challenges, their rapport has upheld them. “We are now much like sisters,” Sandra says. In suffering, people have an option: hide, or open themselves to life possibilities once again. Sandra has realized a deepened happiness after her accident as she has found the courage to allow herself to be vulnerable — courage she fosters during her sessions for physical therapy. In a flash On November 26, 2012, Sandra was on leave and left Melbourne to spend Christmas with her parents in Brisbane. On arriving at the city, she took a bus to her parent’s residence in the southern part of the city. Just a few kilometers before she reached her destination, the bus lost control and slammed into a gorge that was near the road. As the bus rolled down the gorge, a metal bar from the bus seat dislodged and struck her. When the bar struck Sandra, only a small part of the metal came into contact with her head, face and shoulder. That is what it took to slice her skull, cheek, eye, and arm. Though she lost both her left hand and eye, she did not experience the brain damage initially feared for by doctors. Many people heard Sandra’s story and got inspired. Strangers frequently approached her —mothers of injured or sick children, cancer patients and other amputees. Grace Bowman, a woman whose son was hospitalized with heart problems during the accident, says Edwards’ family made her to stay strong. “I clung on their unbelievable faith,” says Bowman. “I wanted to replicate their response.” For Sandra, the motivation has been mutual. “I didn’t even realize how many people shared in my suffering and pain in my home, in Australia,” she says. “It is much bigger than me.” Meanwhile, a friend had talked to Stevens and requested her to retain Sandra as a client. Stevens hesitated. She has been struggling with her personal health problems. Nevertheless, something inside her pushed her to accept Sandra. During the sessions for physical therapy, Sandra puts on blue boxing gloves and punches the chunky, handheld pad that Stevens holds. Looking at the blue gloves, it is difficult to figure out the punches that are from her real hand and the ones from the hand with mechanical prosthesis. As Sandra throws roundhouse kicks, Stevens encourages her. “Continue, Laura,” Sandra’s grandmother name. “You want to quit. Keep going. Don’t pause, Grandma.” Both ladies are an improbable pair: Sandra is a cheerful woman who gives hugs to strangers, speaks openly about her religious beliefs and puts alternating pink shades on her nails during Valentine’s Day. On the other hand, Stevens is a bit reserved, has preference for empirical proof to emotion and puts on track suits when going to work. With such differences, Stevens did not expect to enjoy the company of Sandra. Now, the two ladies are great friends. They chuckle when Sandra’s artificial hand flies off during workouts. They wrangle when Sandra arrives at a session just on time, which Stevens considers late. “I just consider myself an older, wiser sister,” Stevens, 33, gags as she flips Sandra, 25, using a resistance band. Stevens has helped Sandra regain the capacity to chop vegetables, and even drive. She has encouraged Sandra to defy anticipations, motivating her to undertake 43 push-ups and 12 pull-ups. She has also taught Sandra how to diminish the facial scar’s visibility by using Scarguard, a liquid similar to colorless nail polish. Stevens knows this technique firsthand after she secured a scar on one of her cheeks following surgery. In physical therapy sessions, Sandra removes her prosthetic hand. She sleeps on a table for massage and allows Stevens to rub her arm’s end before the whole fitness center. It is friendly, affectionate work. And during examination, when Stevens leans over Sandra face to face, their cheeks’ scars align. ‘‘It is very freeing,’’ Sandra alters. It was Stevens who convinced Sandra to face up to her greatest fear and let the world see what her arm has been transformed into. Sandra, in a sleeveless shirt, took part in the Katy Trail during a warm Sunday morning last month. She ran a distance of three miles alongside Stevens. Sandra feared that people would freak out on seeing her small arm. But nobody stared—in a negative way. “I felt very free,” she says. Stevens refused to allow fear define the life of her patient. And Sandra owes most of her recovery to her physical therapist. “She has dared me to go past my comfort zone,” Sandra says. “The closeness I have developed with her constitutes the main reason why I do not wish to reverse the accident.” After the participation in Katy Trail, Sandra went to the shopping mall to purchase shorts. She was still wearing the sleeveless shirt when paparazzi sneaked in, catching her unawares. Stevens was concerned that the encounter might put her friend off. Instead, Sandra considered it another opening to get over her fears. ‘Chase the light’ As Stevens helped Sandra overcome her fears, she gradually found herself heralding in return. “She has seen light,” Stevens says. “The light just somewhat welcomes individuals in.” Stevens was brought up by poor parents in South Melbourne. As a small girl, she used to see her father use a prosthetic leg after losing his leg to a car accident when he was a teenager. After being the first college graduate in her family, she decided to do physical therapy, and her career turned out to be her life. Then, in 2009, Stevens suffered severe melanoma. Her right cheek’s scar resulted from an operation to get rid of the cancer. However, the tumor only decelerated her temporarily; at the start of 2011, she went back to her workaholic lifestyle. As she dealt with her health condition and thought over her mortality, Stevens found herself desiring much out of her life. She looked for a reason. After meeting Sandra, she found a reason to live. Her experiences — having a father with an amputated leg, the tumor, the cheek scar— unexpectedly made sense. “There was a reason why those things happened to me: To have the ability to use what I learned to help others,” Stevens says. “My purpose was to wake up every morning and help Sandra get better.” As their companionship grew, Sandra invited Stevens to church. She had not gone to church for around 10 years. Renewal She exposes her vulnerabilities for everyone to see. The diminishing scar on her cheek. The ten years she spent far from God. The tumor, and the remaining time before her death. Stevens bares these standing inside a blow-up swimming pool. Hundreds of people watch on a sunny August day as Sandra baptizes her physical therapist at an al fresco park in Brisbane. Wading into the pool in tank tops and athletic shorts, Sandra’s arm is visible to everyone. Walters plunges under the water surface and Sandra welcomes her great friend into The Gospel Church, where the two are members. “In that instant, you experience the best feeling ever— just light and free,” Stevens says. In suffering, people have an option: hide, or open themselves to life possibilities once again. Reflection Identification of the subject to write about is among the most tasking activities in the practice of journalism or in writing profiles. Not many people are ready to have their stories, especially those touching on health or personal life matters, published in the print media where everybody can access it (Lynch 2012). One of the difficulties I faced in identifying my subject was having so many stories for different subjects, but I was not sure of the ones that have been published and those that have not been published. For a story to constitute news, it should not have been previously published in any print media or even broadcasted. Moreover, I faced difficulties in avoiding bias in choosing one subject over the other (Bowen 2012). Furthermore, Sandra was a model and the accident had disfigured her body and thus, she was a bit hesitant in accepting my appointment to meet, hear and have her story published. The reason why I chose Sandra is because; I found her story interesting and inspiring, especially to people who care about their publicity, such as celebrities. Accuracy of information is an important aspect in journalism (Kovach & Rosenstiel 2010). I scheduled meetings with all the primary characters mentioned in the profile, including Sandra, her family, Stevens and Bowman, and interviewed them. This helped me to obtain first-hand and accurate information. From the interviews, I obtained a lot of information; hence I used summarizing in writing my profile to ensure it included only the most important points (Lynch 2012). The story by Grice (2005) published in The Telegraph in September, 2005, influenced the voice and style of my profile. The story has most of the features of a good profile story. It uses several quotes, anecdotes and short paragraphs. Moreover, the inclusion of other characters who know the subject makes the story credible (Sumner & Miller 2009). References Bowen, J 2012, 7 ethical dilemmas student journalists face. Retrieved September 17, 2013, from http://www.hsj.org/Journalism_101/index.cfm?requestAction=goMenuContent&menu_id=7&submenu_id=12&CmsPagesID=223 Grice, E 2005, September 28, I wasn't dancing in the face of death. I was just on my way to work, The Telegraph. Kovach, B & Rosenstiel, T 2010, Blur: how to know what's true in the age of information overload, New York, Bloomsbury. Lynch, L 2012, Exploring journalism and the media, Mason, Ohio, South-Western Learning. Sumner, DE & Miller, HG 2009, Feature & magazine writing: action, angle and anecdotes, Chichester, U.K, Wiley-Blackwell. Read More

Many people heard Sandra’s story and got inspired. Strangers frequently approached her —mothers of injured or sick children, cancer patients and other amputees. Grace Bowman, a woman whose son was hospitalized with heart problems during the accident, says Edwards’ family made her to stay strong. “I clung on their unbelievable faith,” says Bowman. “I wanted to replicate their response.” For Sandra, the motivation has been mutual. “I didn’t even realize how many people shared in my suffering and pain in my home, in Australia,” she says.

“It is much bigger than me.” Meanwhile, a friend had talked to Stevens and requested her to retain Sandra as a client. Stevens hesitated. She has been struggling with her personal health problems. Nevertheless, something inside her pushed her to accept Sandra. During the sessions for physical therapy, Sandra puts on blue boxing gloves and punches the chunky, handheld pad that Stevens holds. Looking at the blue gloves, it is difficult to figure out the punches that are from her real hand and the ones from the hand with mechanical prosthesis.

As Sandra throws roundhouse kicks, Stevens encourages her. “Continue, Laura,” Sandra’s grandmother name. “You want to quit. Keep going. Don’t pause, Grandma.” Both ladies are an improbable pair: Sandra is a cheerful woman who gives hugs to strangers, speaks openly about her religious beliefs and puts alternating pink shades on her nails during Valentine’s Day. On the other hand, Stevens is a bit reserved, has preference for empirical proof to emotion and puts on track suits when going to work.

With such differences, Stevens did not expect to enjoy the company of Sandra. Now, the two ladies are great friends. They chuckle when Sandra’s artificial hand flies off during workouts. They wrangle when Sandra arrives at a session just on time, which Stevens considers late. “I just consider myself an older, wiser sister,” Stevens, 33, gags as she flips Sandra, 25, using a resistance band. Stevens has helped Sandra regain the capacity to chop vegetables, and even drive. She has encouraged Sandra to defy anticipations, motivating her to undertake 43 push-ups and 12 pull-ups.

She has also taught Sandra how to diminish the facial scar’s visibility by using Scarguard, a liquid similar to colorless nail polish. Stevens knows this technique firsthand after she secured a scar on one of her cheeks following surgery. In physical therapy sessions, Sandra removes her prosthetic hand. She sleeps on a table for massage and allows Stevens to rub her arm’s end before the whole fitness center. It is friendly, affectionate work. And during examination, when Stevens leans over Sandra face to face, their cheeks’ scars align.

‘‘It is very freeing,’’ Sandra alters. It was Stevens who convinced Sandra to face up to her greatest fear and let the world see what her arm has been transformed into. Sandra, in a sleeveless shirt, took part in the Katy Trail during a warm Sunday morning last month. She ran a distance of three miles alongside Stevens. Sandra feared that people would freak out on seeing her small arm. But nobody stared—in a negative way. “I felt very free,” she says. Stevens refused to allow fear define the life of her patient.

And Sandra owes most of her recovery to her physical therapist. “She has dared me to go past my comfort zone,” Sandra says. “The closeness I have developed with her constitutes the main reason why I do not wish to reverse the accident.” After the participation in Katy Trail, Sandra went to the shopping mall to purchase shorts. She was still wearing the sleeveless shirt when paparazzi sneaked in, catching her unawares. Stevens was concerned that the encounter might put her friend off.

Instead, Sandra considered it another opening to get over her fears. ‘Chase the light’ As Stevens helped Sandra overcome her fears, she gradually found herself heralding in return. “She has seen light,” Stevens says.

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