Miracle Man: Intensive Neurological Rehabilitation

On July 3, 2024, Jordan Tuinstra’s life changed forever. As the 21-year-old Mount Pleasant man was driving to get lunch, his car was slammed into by a speeding truck. The impact was so forceful and severe that his Grand Marquis came off its frame. The crash left Jordan with a traumatic brain injury and a long road to recovery.

“I don’t really remember the actual crash,” Jordan said. “The last thing I remember was leaving work. I have snippets of being in my car, but then I woke up in the hospital, not knowing why I was there.” Jordan was flown by Flight For Life to Froedtert Hospital, the academic medical center of the Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin health network. At the only adult Level I Trauma Center in eastern Wisconsin, Jordan was surrounded by skilled medical professionals who addressed his injuries and assessed his immediate needs. Some of his needs were physical. Jordan received a tracheostomy and a feeding tube to help him breathe and obtain nourishment. Other needs focused on helping his injured brain heal.

Intensive Therapy Restructures Brain After Injury

“The brain controls motor function,” said Mary Voegeli, APNP, an advanced practice nurse practitioner and brain injury specialist who worked with Jordan in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) as part of the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation brain injury consultation team. “It controls our cognition, thinking and psychological being. But there’s also something called neuroplasticity. The brain adapts and reorganizes. It can restructure itself after an injury.”

Jordan’s work began in the ICU, as the team began aggressive occupational, physical and speech therapies. Voegeli said research shows that patients can benefit from these therapies even before they are fully conscious and aware of their surroundings. Jordan spent 21 days in the ICU and six days in a standard room before being released to Froedtert Bluemound Rehabilitation Hospital, an inpatient rehabilitation hospital. This was Jordan’s home for the next 21 days.

Physical Therapy Helps to Re-Educate Brain

“When he arrived, he required a significant hands-on assist for almost everything,” said Marie Moore, DPT, physical therapist, who oversaw Jordan’s physical therapy in the rehabilitation hospital. “He lacked coordination in his right arm and leg. His balance was off, and he couldn’t maintain a straight path.”

Jordan remembers those days well. He started in a wheelchair and graduated to a walker. His right side was weak, and he struggled to walk in a straight path. Therapists focused on neuromuscular re-education, retraining Jordan’s brain and body to work together again.

Jordan also was challenged to redevelop his fine motor skills, with activities like drawing, typing and using scissors. As a right-handed person with right-sided weakness, Jordan needed to retrain his brain to work on the right side again. One activity focused on placing foam blocks into a cup, something a toddler might do. It was a struggle for a young man recovering from a brain injury, though.

“I remember hating those foam cubes in the cup,” Jordan said.

He continued to progress and was discharged home with regular outpatient physical therapy at Froedtert & MCW Drexel Town Square Health Center, closer to his home. There, Jenna Peterson, DPT, physical therapist, worked to help him refine his newly regained skills, doing activities like working out in a gym and practicing the golf swing that had him shooting one under par the day before the crash.

Care Team and Family Support Improve Recovery

Jordan’s family — parents, Holly and Brian; sister, Carly; and his now wife, Cami — were instrumental in his recovery.

“That kind of family support can be the gamechanger in a patient’s progress, and his family was able to participate in his continued recovery,” Peterson said. “When Jordan first came to see me, he still needed his parents to help with walking and stairs. By the time he graduated, he was golfing, getting to the gym and jogging. It was incredible. I expected to work with him longer, given the severity of his injury, but he kept improving.”

This past summer, Jordan took a landscaping job while he figures out his future.

“Landscaping is helping me build strength and coordination,” Jordan said. “I don’t have a Plan B yet, but I’m taking it one day at a time.”

Looking back, Jordan credits his faith and the Froedtert & MCW team for his recovery.

“They definitely gave me amazing care,” Jordan said. “I know they were put in my path for a reason. If it were a different hospital, I don’t think I’d be here, or I wouldn’t be as far along as I am. I felt cared for every single day.”

The Froedtert & MCW health network offers a variety of inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation programs and services. Call 414-777-7700 for an appointment. Specific services and location options are detailed at froedtert.com/rehabilitation.