Hydrotherapy to Paralympics!
Behind every athlete is a story of dedication and sacrifice in order to achieve their goals. The days (sometimes nights) spent training, the adherence to strict programs and diets come rain, hail or shine and pushing through the pain barrier are things that most athletes live with, even moreso athletes that compete with disabilities or after amputations.
With the 2020 Paralympics now less that 12 months away, many of these athletes will be ramping up their training, pushing themselves to new limits. One of those Athletes is Monique Murphy, who 5 years ago was involved in a freak accident that nearly claimed her life, but lost her right leg in the process. In the years since her injury, Monique has gone from a competitive swimmer in her youth, to a Paralympic silver medal winner at the Rio games in 2016.
When Monique fell from the fifth storey balcony of her apartment onto the glass roof of an adjacent building she broke her jaw, left collarbone, right tibial plateau and three ribs that also punctured her lung. The fall also severed her right triceps tendon, crushed her left knee and propelled shards of glass into her neck. Doctors managed to save Monique’s life, but they couldn’t save her foot; the trauma was so significant that her leg was partially amputated during emergency surgery.
When Monique awoke and was faced with the partial loss of her leg, she made the further gut-wrenching decision to have her leg amputated to the knee in order to give herself the best chance of regaining function and movement. This is when Monique began working with a physiotherapist to rehabilitate and when she found the program that put her on the path to a Paralympic games podium; Hydrotherapy.
‘Getting into the water was so liberating. For the first time, I could move more than I had in weeks’
According to Monique, it was the experience of hydrotherapy that reawakened her drive to be in the water and begin competitive swimming again. “I had given up swimming when I finished school and started my gap year in 2012. I had no initial interest in returning to the sport despite the suggestions by many people. It wasn’t until I started hydrotherapy that I remembered how much I loved being in the water. I gradually built up swimming and for a long time it was the one activity that would always get me out of bed or out of the house.”
Monique and many other amputees credit Hydrotherapy with reducing chronic pain, phantom pain commonly felt by amputees in the limb that was amputated, getting back to fitness and instilling confidence that there is hope for a full recovery.
Is Hydrotherapy/Aquatic Physiotherapy right for me?
At Lane Cove Physio our physiotherapists offer individually tailored therapeutic exercise for numerous conditions and will always conduct an in depth physical examination to determine the benefits for you. Our physiotherapists are experts in utilising Hydrotherapy for:
- Orthopaedic rehabilitation
- Joint replacement surgery (hip, knee, shoulder)
- Arthritic conditions (rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, ankylosing spondylitis)
- Back and neck pain
- Weight loss/Obesity
- Pregnancy fitness and aquanatal classes
- Chronic pain suffers
- Sports injuries
- Cardiac rehabilitation
- Aerobic fitness
- Elderly patients with decreased mobility
- Hydrotherapy for burns
Lane Cove Physio’s hydrotherapy pool is conveniently located in our physiotherapy centre. It is on the corner of Longueville Road and River Road West, 237 Longueville Road. There is easy off street parking and a council car park opposite the centre on Longueville Road. Less able patients are able to use the driveway at the Centre.
For more information about Hydrotherapy in Sydney, please don’t hesitate to contact our friendly staff at Lane Cove physio on 02 9428 5772 or come on down and check it out for yourself.