Don't Give Up:
Denny Weisenburger's story of determination and recovery with the help of Fisher-Titus Physical Therapy.
It was a normal Friday for Denny Weisenburger at his Norwalk Concrete Industries job in 2017 when he began to notice a pain in his neck. As the evening wore on, that pain got worse and he decided to go to the Fisher‐ Titus Emergency Room the next day.
“They did some imaging on my neck and transferred me to Toledo,” Denny explained. “They found out that I had a staph infection on my spinal cord and would need surgery.”
Denny underwent his first surgery with the surgeon accessing the infection through the back of his neck. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to clear the infection with that procedure and he had to undergo a second surgery from the front near his throat.
Those surgeries were just the beginning of Denny’s road to recovery. As a result of the infection and the surgeries, he required a trach, ventilator, catheter, tube‐feeding, and more over the next few months. But Denny never gave up or got discouraged.
“I had determination,” Denny explained with a chuckle. “I wasn’t going to go with the big guy up top and the little guy down below is too darn hot!”
After recovering in the hospital, he spent several weeks at local rehabilitation centers. Denny also remembers being quadriplegic and wheelchair bound for over a year.
Denny was able to return home in early April of 2018 and started physical therapy the following month.
“My care team has been great,” Denny said. “The biggest thing they’ve helped me with is being able to take care of myself.”
Denny has worked hard in therapy to get to where he is today feeling good overall, independent, and able to do some of the things he enjoyed before his illness. With therapy, he’s been able to stop blood pressure medication and lose weight he gained while he was unable to walk.
“Between physical therapy, Anytime Fitness, and my wife who was a nurse for 50‐something years, I get no rest!” Denny joked.
Since starting therapy, Denny went from being in a wheelchair to walking with two canes and now, while at therapy under the supervision of his care team, he is able to walk without a cane. He is even able to mow his five acres of yard.
Denny says his biggest take away is to not give up and keep a positive attitude.
“It’s been a long road back and I’ve still got a ways to go,” Denny said. “But, there is a light at the end of the tunnel that gets a little bit bigger every day.”
