Head on collision puts right people in path

“It sounds crazy, but I thank God for my accident because it saved my life,” says Brittany Clark.

She was on her way to work on December 19, 2011 when a car crossed the line and slammed into her head on.  It took medics 20 minutes to cut her out of her totaled car and three surgeries to correct her shattered elbow and fractured wrist. 

As she started rehab at DMC Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan (RIM), therapists noticed a bulge in her lower back.  Brittany knew it was there and had been checked out by other doctors who said it was a strain caused by uneven hips and would go away.  Overtime she felt it was more than that because it was becoming more and more painful. 

Like Brittany, RIM’s therapists weren’t so convinced uneven hips were her problem.  They urged her to get another opinion and that doctor came back with a much different diagnosis.

“I had a volleyball-sized tumor in my back.  It wasn’t cancerous, but it was growing so quickly that if I had been diagnosed just three weeks later, it would be in my spine making me paralyzed. Oh my God…what if they hadn’t caught it in time?”

Brittany had the tumor removed and continued her therapy at RIM for her elbow, wrist and lower body. 

“I wasn’t even at DMC Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan for my back.  They didn’t have to care about it, but thank God they did.  They went above and beyond and showed genuine interest in me and all my aches and pains.  I’ve really stayed positive and upbeat through this whole ordeal and a lot of that has to do with RIM.  Thanks to my team, I’m back doing most of the things I love.”