WALLINGFORD, Conn. (WFSB) - ‘Home for the holidays’ has a special meaning for one Willington family.
A chef, father of two, and husband spent the past four months recovering at Gaylord Specialty Healthcare after a freak accident during a summer camping trip that left him paralyzed from the waist down.
“It was nerve-wracking. I couldn’t feel from the waist down,” said Tyler Southwick, Gaylord Specialty Healthcare Patient.
Southwick is a father of two and a local chef.
A camping trip in August with his family turned his life upside down.
“I fell off the roof of my car and my spine hit a rock. I shattered my T12. Also, my shoulder blade broke and I broke three ribs down the right side of my back,” Southwick explained.
Southwick had surgery to fuse his spine back together.
He spent 123 days at Gaylord Specialty Healthcare receiving daily occupational and physical therapy to build strength.
“You wake up in the morning and you get dressed and come down to the therapy rec room and just go right at it,” Southwick said.
“At the beginning, it was focused on his daily life skills, teaching him how to dress himself again and wash himself and take showers. He is a chef, so getting him back in the kitchen doing things from a wheelchair level,” said Jackie Lavigne, Gaylord Occupational Therapist.
In addition to weight training, using a zero gravity machine, and learning how to stand and walk again, Southwick got the chance to get back into his comfort zone in the kitchen by making meals for the staff helping in his rehabilitation.
“We have had him in there doing the stove and getting things out of the fridge and prepping meals and chopping peppers to kind of just stimulate what he does for work,” said Lavigne. “Once he started getting leg movement back it was a whole new ball game.”
Now, Southwick can walk again using a walker.
His wife Gina and his two young kids have been frequently visiting him, cheering him on along the way.
“It’s just been a miracle in what’s become from the first moment of him not being able to stand or do anything to know he’s walking on his own. Getting in and out of the chair and using the bathroom. It’s just amazing,” said Gina Murphy.
It’s the family’s own Christmas miracle as Southwick will be discharged from the hospital on Saturday.
“It’s a little nerve-wracking getting back home from having all this assistance. But I have a great wife who will be helping me out and a great support system,” Southwick said. “I’m excited. A lot of presents to wrap this year.”
But Southwick still has a way to go in his recovery.
He will continue therapy at an outpatient clinic at UConn.
He hopes to be back in the kitchen at the Wethersfield Country Club within the next three months.
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