Hidden in a room in a basement is the team that touches every department at CUH. Richard Murray can tell you how crucial physiotherapy is to healing.

In 2021, he and a few friends were on holiday on the Shannon River. It’s a boat trip they do every year. On the first day, they pulled off at a wooded spot to tie up for the night. They’d stopped there before.

Richard was sitting on a wall, when suddenly he fell back off it. Right away, he knew something was wrong. His friends called an ambulance and Richard was taken to the nearest hospital in Limerick. After stabilizing him, they sent him to the Mater in Dublin that same night. Before he knew it, he was in surgery for a spinal fusion. He had lost all motor control below the fracture – midway down his spine.

As Richard tells it, “It was life changing, of course. It happened on Monday night. And by the Wednesday morning it was the first day of the rest of my life.”

That’s when we met Richard. Our physios are not just building your muscles or your ability, they’re building confidence.

“Everything the physios taught me allowed me to get back to my life on day one.”

“Physio was the first time my world expanded beyond the room and the ward. The whole team, Brid and Kevin and Liz, they gave me that confidence. They were allowing me to deal with it properly and not being in denial about it.

“I still had my tough days. But they bring me up. They get my spirits. And when I look back now, there were things that I found challenging then that I don’t even think about now.

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There are tools that would make progress better for people who are spasming and can’t do their exercises because of that. There are standing
frames, and floor mats so they can do exercises with people on the floor.

“I have a standing frame at home now, and it allows me to stand up in the room here and get some work. It’s good for your bones, good for your bowels, good mentally as well. But I dread the day I have to return it to the community.”

The importance of movement and exercise to healing cannot be overstated.

For people like Richard, with spinal injuries, learning how to resume their lives is critical. Our physios teach, encourage, and offer emotional support to their patients.

Richard says, “I know how good a start they gave me.”