HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital of Alexandria
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HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital of Alexandria
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 The day started bright and early as we got ready for a five mile ceremonial ride to the HealthSouth facility - accompanied by two police officers. Because of all the clouds, it wasn't as hot as usual, but it sure was humid! We were met at our motel by Walter and Debbie, both HealthSouth staff. |
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 The police officers did a beautiful ballet, one directing traffic while the other would dash to the front of the column - then switching off and doing it again. Personally, it would have been much more fun to have stopped off at the drive-through daquiri store (see the Frosty Factory sign) instead of pedaling so hard in the humidity! |
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 We approached the HealthSouth rehab hospital with the police oficers still doing their dance, and with a contingent of dignitaries clapping as we approached. Thank heaven for common sense - the patients waited for us inside, where the air conditioning was on, full blast. |
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 Mayor Fields of Pineville (just across the Red River from Alexandria) and Bill Bush (HealthSouth CEO) welcomed us to the facility and proclaimed today Amputees Across America Day in Pineville. The eleven-year mayor was a fascinating man, and we appreciated his support. |
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Bill presented us with another plaque, this one proclaining today AAA Day for Alexandria. Too bad we didn't have more time to ride around town - we wouldn't have had to worry about parking tickets! |
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 Dick and John spent some time chatting with William, a left BK (below knee amputee) from many years ago who has recently had some other health issues. Its hard to keep a good man down, and William is still in there, swinging. |
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 Here is Abel talking to Harlman Patterson about his Buzzard Luck. Harlman was a Korean War vet, and he told us he ran so fast across the rice paddies that the soles of his shoes didn't get wet. He won a Purple Heart in Korea. He described his Buzzard Luck as the luck between bad and good - the buzzards are looking at you, but they haven't gotten you - yet! |
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John and Abel relaxing with Audis who is working hard with HealthSouth therapists to regain his balance so that he can get on with his life. He is a hard worker and we wish him the best. |
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 The AAA crew ham it up with Earnell and Debbie. Earnell was acting as an inpromptu photographer, and Debbie is the Director of Marketing. She did a wonderful job coordinating our visit and taking care of little details like finding us a nice place to stay. Thanks to both Earnell and Debbie!
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The AAA gang hamming it up again with (from the left) Dana, Eloise and Cecil. Cecil has the 2007 AAA poster (our last visit to this facility) hung on his living room wall - to show his grandkids the impact a group of amputees can have. Eloise is a very recent AK (above the knee) and is still trying to figure out what all this means for her. She has a very positive attitude and we feel confident that she'll be back doing her daily 30 minute walk in fairly short order. It is visiting with people like Eloise that makes our ride so fulfilling.
After visiting with all the facility's in-patients and as many out-patients as we could find, we called it a day. On the way out, we thanked both Debbie Hornsby (DMO) and Bill Bush (CEO) for the wonderful day, the excellent staff support for our visit, the nice lunch and most of all, for the priviledge of talking to their patients. Hope to see them again next year! We also thank Best Western for the comfortable accomodations and nice breakfast - it started out our day just right! |
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