Dr. Slava Shut

I didn’t become a doctor to make money. I chose this profession because I love to help people. If there’s something I can fix, I can’t help but roll up my sleeves and get to work. For this type of mentality, becoming a physical therapist can be a very rewarding professional choice. But you’ve got to be ready to put in the hours, the days, and the years to make lasting, positive impacts on those lives you’re fortunate enough to touch.

I work with lots of people in physical therapy; it’s a rewarding career. There’s nothing like stewarding the journey to recovery for those of us that need a little help after an injury, surgery, or accident. I try to maintain great relationships with all my patients most of the time. Along with my family, they’re the only people I really get to help on a regular basis. But every once in a while, there’s someone I don’t personally or professionally know that I still get a chance to touch their lives in a positive way.

The other day, someone I didn’t really know needed my help. 

The Fallen Man

As I made my way toward him, I could tell it was pretty urgent. It was like any other day at work when I’d happened to look out the window of Back2Health Physical Therapy and I saw an older man, maybe in his 60s, struggling to walk with people straining to hold him up on either side. Even without relying on my experience as a physical therapist, I could see he was in trouble. 

At first, it looked like he may have lost his balance temporarily, but there were a couple of other people trying to help him regain his balance. I started walking toward the door before I realized the man seemed a little too heavy–and awkward–to be held up by the people struggling with his frame. The young lady on one side was so small she was almost completely hidden under the shoulder of the fallen man.

…the fallen man.

He’s going to fall, I thought, already striding to the glass windows in the front of the building. There’s only concrete out there. By the time my hand released the door handle, I was running. 

Giving a Helpful Hand

From my experience with patients in physical therapy, I knew the horrible pain that this person would’ve had to go through if he’d fallen. Landing directly on bent knees on concrete could result in catastrophic injuries. I had to do something. The best way to help him at this point, I thought, is to stop this before it happens. Just as soon as I could catch up to them, I locked my left shoulder underneath his, grabbed his torso above his waist, and took the brunt of his weight on my hip to hold him up. With his weight stabilized, I bet I was as relieved as those trying to hold the man up before I got there!

“Is everything ok?” I asked when I finally had the chance.

“My legs, they…they gave out on me,” he groaned. He must have been in his 60s. He was predictably heavy; I could see why the people with him were struggling under him. It felt like I was holding a lot of his weight. I looked down. His legs were completely off the ground at this point. He must’ve still been in some pain. To take the strain off his back and make the weight a little more manageable, I carefully transitioned him to a cradle carry. “Can you take me to my car?” he asked.

I grimaced, but agreed; what good would it do to save him from a fall, just to put him in more peril? I helped him into his car. His legs were mostly immobile, and I had to place his feet on the mat in front of the driver’s seat for him. I couldn’t let him attempt to drive away like this. As he thanked me, I stood and placed my hand on the driver’s side door of his vehicle.

“Is there someone you can call?”

Luckily, there was; the man was happily married, and his concerned wife showed up before long to pick him up and take him home. With everyone safe, that left a much more welcome issue of simple logistics; there were two drivers and two cars, but they were both riding in the same car home. And somehow, G-d smiled upon the couple once again; a volunteer from my clinic drove their vehicle back for them, all the way home.

Action Cures Fear

That was way more excitement than I like in my daily work, but I’m happy that it happened the way it did. Someone asked me why I wasn’t worried the moment I saw the gentleman start to fall. ‘What convinced you to act? What was going through your mind? How could you know that if you got involved, you wouldn’t accidentally cause something awful, something worse, to happen?”

G-d will grant strength in times of crisis. The first step to resolving a crisis is to recognize that there is one. When there’s an immediate need, action should come immediately. If I’d spent time thinking about the potential consequences of intervening, I wouldn’t have made it in time to be of any help to anybody. That man could’ve gotten seriously hurt. He could’ve taken the others down with him; one (or both) of them could’ve gotten seriously hurt. That’s a lot to think about when it’s time to act!

I Can Help Lift You Up You Too

I’m more than just a physical therapist. There’s a time for planning things, and there’s a time for doing things. The trick is to know when it’s time to do which. Are you ready to do something bigger with your life? Schedule a free one-on-one consultation with me to get started on your journey!