Wheelchair Bound for Three Years, Brooks Home Health Helps Keshia Walk Again

After complications from sciatica and congestive heart failure left Keshia Stirgus using a wheelchair, she turned to Brooks Home Health to help rebuild her strength and independence. She had one meaningful goal in mind: walking down the aisle at her wedding vow renewal.

With support from her Brooks Home Health physical therapist assistant (PTA), Keshia made incredible progress through rehabilitation. When the special day arrived, she didn’t just walk down the aisle. She danced.

Watch Keshia’s inspiring patient story and see how home health rehabilitation helped her work toward a milestone she’ll never forget. #WeAreBrooks

Transcript for Keshia Stirgus’ recovery story

Keshia Stirgus:
My name is Keshia Stirgus and I’m 47 years old. I live in Jacksonville, Florida, and I love to travel and especially take road trips. In 2022, I was hospitalized and I found out that I had congestive heart failure. I was also suffering from arthritis and sciatica. During that time, I was bedbound in the hospital and I lost the ability to walk on my own. I lost all independence. I very rarely left my house because I was depressed. I think people take for granted the simple things like going to get gas or going to convenience store. I had to rely on my husband and others to take me everywhere I had to go.

Having the in-home health was very convenient. With me being wheelchair bound, it made transportation very hard for me to actually go out to have actual therapy. So by them being able to come to my home made it a lot more easier and a lot more comfortable for me.

Keri Page, PTA:
When I first met Keshia, she was wheelchair bound and she had been in a wheelchair for a few years. Keshia wanted to walk down the aisle for her wedding renewal to renew her vows. And in her mind, she was going to use a rollator and she was going to decorate it with white confetti and all the good stuff, but I had different plans.

Keshia Stirgus:
Meeting Keri for the first time was amazing. I had had several other home health companies come in before and we just weren’t successful. Upon meeting Keri, it was an instant connection. She has a great spirit. She is infectious, so she makes you want to do the work.

Keri Page, PTA:
We had to start with strengthening and then we started working on standing endurance, standing balance, and then we really got to the walking. We did a lot of standing exercises, a lot of squats, a lot of sit to stands. I mean, just building this standing endurance alone to give her the stamina to walk and to stand that long to walk down the aisle was our biggest focus.

And when I found out that music motivated her, that’s all we had to do. We turned on some music during our session. We stand, we exercise, we danced. I mean, anything to get her heart going, to keep her standing, to keep her moving. So music was motivating for her.

Keshia Stirgus:
Keri motivated me in numerous ways. She not only motivated me to want to achieve the goal, she also was like a coach, like a football coach. She believed I could do it before I believed I could do it.

Keri Page, PTA:
I saw incredible progress and I knew that she was actually doing what I was telling her to do. I could see her getting stronger and stronger and it got to a point where we really just needed to build her confidence more than anything.

Keshia Stirgus:
I honestly just thought that I would get to a point where I would be able to stand, maybe use my walker, decorate it and that be it. There’s never, not in a hundred years, a million years that I imagine we would be to this point today.

The day of the vow renewal, I was sweating bullets. I didn’t honestly believe that I would be able to do it, but it was showtime.

In the back of my mind, I still heard Keri’s words saying, “You can do this.” So when those doors opened, I looked at those people and I just did it. I heard the music and off I went, off I went and I did not have to use a walker or a wheelchair throughout the whole wedding ceremony. Through the reception, I was able to maintain, dance, all of that with a cane and all of that within five months.

It’s no short of a miracle what she was able to do in that short amount of time.

Keri Page, PTA:
When I saw the video of her walking down the aisle, I cried. I had just tears streamed down my face. I was so happy. She didn’t just walk. She danced down the aisle to her husband and you could hear in the background everybody just gasping because they had seen her in a wheelchair for three years. So yeah, it was huge.

It’s what makes my job so rewarding seeing the progress that she has made.

Keshia Stirgus:
What I would like to say to Brooks and the therapist that helped me, thank you, thank you, thank you. You changed my life for the better. I never imagined in a million years that I would be up on my feet, period. And to be able to walk down the aisle and renew my vows in a matter of five months is nothing but a miracle and I’d never ever be able to repay you for everything you’ve done for me.