2017 Health Care Heroes: Top Honoree
A patient with a spinal cord injury is hospitalized, then released to a rehabilitation facility and, later, outpatient therapy. But insurance benefits run out and therapy stops long before the patient is self-sufficient.
It’s a story all too familiar to Nora Foster, Sara Sale, Donna Peterson and Wendy Ahler, the therapists at NeuroHope of Indiana, which opened in February 2015 to keep therapy going and hope alive for people recovering from spinal cord injury, brain injury, stroke and other neurologic conditions that require rehabilitation beyond what insurers are typically willing to pay for.
“This isn’t just a job for us … it’s not about salary or benefits,” said Foster, a physical therapist who is passionate about spinal cord injury rehab. Foster was working at a local rehab hospital and looking for a new challenge when a faculty member at University of Indianapolis, where she was trained, connected her with Chris Leeuw.
