MossRehab

Congratulations to Shannon Jacobs, Guest Relations, Concierge, and Volunteer Coordinator, for receiving the August 2024 Mission Moment Award at Jefferson Moss-Magee Rehabilitation. Shannon received a Mission Moment award for going above and beyond by organizing the first-ever Center City Therapy Paralympics for our patients. She created poster boards featuring former Magee patients who were currently competing or had competed in the past. She coordinated with recreational therapy to spend the week holding "Olympic events" in our three gyms, culminating in a rooftop Paralympic meet on our sixth floor, complete with pickleball, ax throwing, and frisbee golf! She also worked with our wheelchair sports department to have specialty sport wheelchairs on display, along with information about how to join our competitive wheelchair sports teams. The hallways were decorated, each gym had an LED torch, and the competing patients all received medals! Thank you, Shannon, for this work and all you do every day for our patients and staff!

Gregory Jones is our Creative Arts Therapies Patient of the Month Spotlight! Greg’s rehab journey started in 2019. He experienced a devastating a stroke that resulted in significant weakness in the right side of his body. Through hard work and dedication, Greg has regained the ability to walk. He continues to work on strengthening his right hand and arm by regularly participating in music therapy and art therapy at our Riverfront outpatient facility. Greg was a percussionist for Arpeggio Jazz Ensemble and played professionally throughout Philadelphia. He hasn’t been performing in the same capacity since his stroke five years ago. Greg says that music therapy has helped him gain confidence in playing again. During sessions with music therapist, Allison McCrea, Greg focuses on using his right hand while playing the on electronic drum kit and various hand drums. Greg’s creativity shines at the Riverfront. His talent and inclusive energy inspires patients of varying abilities to get involved in the collaborative process of music-making.

Join us for the upcoming Moss Traumatic Brain Injury Model System's Conference. The event will be held at Hamilton Hall on the Thomas Jefferson University campus (1001 Locust Street, Phila) on Saturday October 12, 2024, from 9am –4pm (registration opens at 8am). The cost is $15 per person. Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/eWaiHiGy

Mark Chilutti’s life is a jarring narrative of impossibly bad luck – except for a remarkable resilience that has left his spirit, if not his body, unscathed. Chilutti has been a fundraising executive at Jefferson Moss-Magee Rehabilitation for more than 23 years. But his first acquaintance with the hospital was as a patient. Chilutti was hospitalized in 1988 after a drunk driver left him with multiple broken bones, facial injuries that needed 100 stitches, and a traumatic brain injury. He recovered fully – and never imagined he’d be back again. But eight years later, Chilutti was shot by robbers who held up his jewelry store. The bullet severed his spinal cord, left him paralyzed from the chest down, “and changed my life.” “I came to Magee for rehab and to learn how to move forward with my life,” Chilutti says. He spent six weeks as an inpatient and almost a year in an outpatient program, “learning to do the things I loved in a wheelchair,” he says. The same resourcefulness that helped Chilutti become an Eagle Scout at the young age of 14 kept him focused on staying positive. “I had way too much to look forward to,” he says. “I decided to move forward and focus on the things I could do and not what I couldn’t do.” Chilutti began volunteering at what was then Magee Rehab, helping raise money. Then, a job opened as Director of Major Gifts. “The job has been better than I could have imagined as I love being able to make a difference,” says Chilutti, now Assistant Vice President of Development. “Being a former patient, it gives me a whole different edge. I’m not talking about statistics. I am one of them.” Chilutti has perhaps a unique perspective on just how much things have changed at Jefferson Moss Magee in the last quarter century. “It’s night and day,” he says. “When I was here with a spinal cord injury, there were four patients in a room,” Chilutti says. “Now we have 83 beautiful all single rooms.” The assistive technology “that now opens a whole new world for our patients,” was comparatively primitive and unaffordable back then. A program that enabled paralyzed patients to voice-activate a computer, for instance, was $4,000 just for the program, plus the cost of the computer. “Nobody could afford it,” Chilutti says. “Now, you can do it with a cellphone or a tablet.” But not everything is different, Chilutti says: “The one thing that hasn’t changed,” he says, “is the caring staff that we have that go above and beyond every day to help patients figure a way back.” #Jefferson200 #OurPeopleOurHistory

Check out 6abc Action News feature on Jefferson Moss-Magee Rehabilitation, highlighting four key reasons we're a top choice for rehabilitative care. From our comprehensive programs to cutting-edge research, we're committed to providing the best care possible for our patients. https://6abc.cm/4cYwVNW

September is spinal cord injury awareness month. As the Paralympics come to a close this week in Paris, we want to highlight the extraordinary accomplishments of two former patients who competed in this year’s games in Paris. Emelia Perry and Mason Symmons have not let spinal cord injuries hold them back from their dreams of competing on the global stage. Mason Symons (and Team USA’s wheelchair rugby team) won silver this year in Paris! Mason was paralyzed in a motorcycle accident in 2009. A native of Hershey, PA, Mason spent four months recovering at what was then-Magee Rehabilitation Hospital. He was drawn to wheelchair rugby’s intensity, physicality and team atmosphere. Emi Perry, originally from Philadelphia, lives full-time at the Olympic and Paralympics Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Emi took 5th place in the triathlon! A fall from a ladder in 2017 caused her spinal cord injury. Knowing she had been a longtime competitive runner, Emi’s physical therapists introduced her to adaptive sports early in her recovery which set her on a path to the Paralympics seven years later. She already has her sights set on competing in the triathlon in the next Paralympics in LA in 2028!

Dr. Michelle Konkoly’s life has truly come full circle – from patient to Paralympian to physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) doctor at the same hospital where she recovered from a spinal cord injury at the age of 18. https://lnkd.in/dP5VYwSf

Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals and Jefferson Moss-Magee Rehabilitation's Nurse Residency Program (NRP) have been awarded a 10-year accreditation from the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) after meeting all four accreditation standards. Congratulations to everyone who contributed to the NRP accreditation efforts, including Deborah Gardiner, MSN, RN, CCCTM, Nurse Residency Coordinator, who has been involved in designing, implementing, and evaluating the residency program to support nurses' transition into practice, and Amy Lipsett, MHA, BSN, RN, NPD-BC, Nurse Manager, Nursing Professional Development, for her leadership, as well as all the members of the NPD team.

MossRehab Institute for Brain Health and our very own, Dr. Yevgeniya Sergeyenko were featured in a piece that aired last night on Scripps News. Dr. Sergeyenko spoke about the prevalence and significance of traumatic brain injuries in US servicemembers, and the care provided at MRIBH. Scroll to 4:50 to watch the portion about MRIBH and Dr. Sergeyenko remarks about the complicated, long-lasting effects of a traumatic brain injury. https://bit.ly/4csDPuD

The healing power of adaptive sports was on full display at Jefferson Moss-Magee Rehabilitation’s annual tennis tournament #tennis #wheelchairsports #adaptiveathletes #adaptivesports #physicalrehab #philadelphia