Nelson Ortega can once again grip a steering wheel for his job at a car dealership thanks to occupational therapy following a serious bout of pneumonia.
HELP AT HAND HOW OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY HELPED ONE MAN GET BACK IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT.
Healthy Together
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elson Ortega was young and healthy, so he was taken by surprise when he developed a hacking cough early last August. “I wasn’t breathing normally,” the 23-year-old Bridgewater resident recalls. At night, sweats and shakes began wracking his body. “I thought I’d caught COVID,” he says. When over-the-counter medicines didn’t ease his discomfort after several days, Nelson called his doctor and described his COVID-like symptoms. “The office told me to go straight to the
hospital,” he says. He headed for Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) Somerset—a decision that would save his life.
FEAR AND FAITH
To his surprise, Nelson tested negative for COVID. Instead, he was suffering from pneumonia. His symptoms were so severe that his treatment team decided to sedate and intubate him. The news was frightening, but “I put everything into faith,” he says. “At the hospital, I knew I would be in great hands. I gave
Summer 2021
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