Surviving a Spinal Cord Injury - Travis' Story
With a wrench in his hand and sweat on his forehead, Travis Kondo is happiest at work fixing cars and helping the people who own them. In fact, he proudly says you can find him working 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But in 2019, he had to take a break. His back was hurting, which was unusual, and within three days, he couldn’t walk.
Travis is an Oahu resident, automotive mechanic and spinal cord injury survivor. In 2019, he was diagnosed with a staph infection in his spine, which was causing the back pain and led to partial paralysis from the waist down. Doctors could not determine the cause of the infection, but surgery was needed to remove the infected tissue and prevent further damage. After surgery, Travis was admitted to REHAB Hospital of the Pacific, where he received intensive inpatient therapy to help him regain his mobility and adjust to life in a wheelchair.
Travis made great strides in inpatient therapy, especially being able to move his feet and learning to kneel again, but wanted to continue rehabilitative therapy in the hopes of walking again. After his inpatient stay, Travis continued his recovery journey at the REHAB at Nuuanu outpatient clinic. In outpatient therapy, Travis worked with the outpatient therapy team to go from wheelchair to using a walker to crutches to walking without assistance. “It was a lot easier to continue from inpatient to outpatient because when I first started therapy it was hard. Outpatient helped get me to full recovery,” he says.
Travis is grateful that his time at REHAB helped him return to life before the diagnosis and surgery. Today he can walk, go to work and do everything he could do before the injury. “When I was in the hospital, I thought I might not be able to walk again. It was pretty crazy,” he says. “I’m grateful for everybody who got me where I am today. If it wasn’t for REHAB, I still might not be walking.”
To learn more about the spinal cord injury program, visit https://www.rehabhospital.org/programs/spinal-cord-injury.