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An Advocate and a Hero
Date: January 22, 2007
In the face of stiff competition from other physical therapy providers, Floyd Rehabilitation Services is growing its business by focusing on the hallmarks of the Floyd experience –providing care that goes well beyond expectations.
When Floyd employee Crystal Gaylor’s son Stephen was injured while playing football, she witnessed first hand the care, compassion and commitment of one of Floyd’s athletic trainers – Jay Mills.
Stephen had injured his knee and Jay had instructed Crystal to take her son to the Monday morning Sports Clinic at Harbin Clinic Orthopedics. When she arrived at 6:55 a.m. , Jay was there to meet them.
This was the morning the Joint Commission arrived and Crystal needed to be in administration to go out with her team and a surveyor. Jay knew this and helped to expedite the entire visit including the x-ray process, she said. Then, he took Stephen to breakfast and on to school so Crystal could go on to work.
On October 20, Jay was the athletic trainer assigned to Stephen’s Junior Varsity football game. Stephen made a tackle from behind and sustained a blunt trauma injury to his abdomen from the other player’s cleat.
Stephen got up, thinking he was just winded, but Jay, who had seen the tackle, asked the coach to take Stephen out of the game so he could examine him. It didn’t take long for Jay to realize Stephen had sustained a serious injury. He suspected either broken ribs or a ruptured spleen, and told Stephen’s dad, Scott, he should take him to Floyd’s Emergency Care Center .
Jay remained at the football field, but came to the ECC immediately after the game to check on Stephen, asking questions of nurses and physicians and following up on tests and images while Crystal and Scott kept vigil over their son.
“He was my advocate,” Crystal said “He was there the entire time with us in the ER once he got through with his game. He was so intuitive to know that Stephen was as bad as he was. Stephen just blows everything off, and says ‘I’m OK, don’t worry about me,’ but this was serious.”
The diagnosis was two lacerations to Stephen’s spleen that resulted in a stay in Floyd’s Intensive Care Unit.
In the days afterward, Jay checked on Stephen daily, researched spleen injuries and shared that information with Stephen and his parents.
Jay has continued to keep a watchful eye over Stephen.
Since Stephen has been back to school, Jay attended his weight-training class with him to make sure he didn’t do anything physically that could compromise his health. And, he attended follow-up doctor visits with Stephen to ask questions about the boy’s limitations and progress.
“Normally people don’t do stuff like that,” Crystal said. “Every time I say thank you to him, Jay says he is only doing his job. He just does not realize that to me he is a hero. He is the reason my son’s injury was not fatal. With him just doing his job he may have just saved my son’s life.”
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