By ELLEN BROWN

Staff Writer

SEVIERVILLE — Wanda Barnes had just come away with a clean bill of health after her annual physical earlier this year — so it was a complete shock when the Dandridge resident suffered a stroke in March.

“My husband told me to get up from bed one morning. I said, ‘OK,’ got up and fell to the floor,” said Barnes, her eyes tearing up at the memory. “I couldn’t walk or use my legs or arms, and I couldn’t speak.”

After being treated at Jefferson County Memorial Hospital, she received home therapy. In July, at the recommendation of family members, she came to Fort Sanders Sevier Therapy Center.

“They told me they heard this was the best place for a stroke victim to come,” Barnes said.

The staff at Fort Sanders Sevier Therapy Center just finished celebrating Physical Therapy Awareness Month. Physical therapists help patients, including accident victims and individuals with disabling conditions such as lower back pain, arthritis, heart disease, fractures, head injuries and cerebral palsy, by providing services that restore function, improve mobility, relieve pain and prevent or limit permanent physical disabilities.

According to About.com, physical therapists held about 173,000 jobs in 2006. Employment of physical therapists is expected to grow much faster than the average for all occupations through 2016.

Barnes received physical therapy after she was released from speech therapy. Last week, she was finishing her last day of occupational therapy when her physical therapist, Sara Alpert, stopped to say hello.

“She is probably the most motivated stroke patient I’ve had in 14 years,” said Alpert, smiling proudly at Barnes.

The bond the women have formed is obvious as they both become teary.

Barnes worked on balance and strength during her therapy. She started out lifting smaller weights at the beginning, then progressed to heavier weights.

“She’s up to about 7.5 pounds now,” Alpert said. “Every time we’d go up she never complained.”

When she began therapy, Barnes said it was “just like starting over.”

“I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t lift my leg up at all,” she said. “But I would do whatever they told me to do. I was walking with a cane, but now I’m walking without it. I can dress myself, bathe myself, wash clothes and fix Ed (her husband) and me something to eat.”

Barnes, who worked with Alpert and fellow physical therapist Hilary Hunter, will return to Fort Sanders Sevier Therapy Center in two months for a follow-up.

“There are plateaus in rehab,” Alpert explained. “Every stroke patient is different. Wanda is a caregiver to her husband (who had suffered two strokes), so there was no choice — she had to do it all.

“Family members want to help, which is fantastic — but there has to be the effort of the patient to get better.”

Alpert remembers someone mentioning physical therapy as a possible career to her when she was in the fifth grade. She received her degree from Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn., and interned at Baptist Hospital in Knoxville before coming to Fort Sanders Sevier.

“Seeing progress like Wanda’s — seeing people get back as much as they give — is the best part of my job,” she said.

ebrown@themountainpress.com