A Story of College Independence

Breianna was born with cerebral palsy (CP), a general term applied to many conditions that can result from a disturbance to the developing brain.

CP affects muscle tone, movement and coordination. This can make it difficult for a child to control body movement. Common activities like speaking, standing or sitting can be challenging. Some children may have associated health conditions related to cognition, speech, vision, hearing, breathing issues or difficulty eating and swallowing.

Every patient has a different journey. Breianna is now 18 years old and is a first-year student living on campus at Immaculata University in Chester County, Pennsylvania.

In June 2023, Breianna received derotational osteotomy surgery – a procedure used to treat inward or outward rotation of the long bones in a patient’s lower extremities. “In Breianna’s case, she had developed bilateral internal tibial torsion (inward rotation of the lower legs),” said Sean Waldron, M.D., Breianna’s surgeon. “Therefore, we performed osteotomies of both tibias and derotated her tibias, which means that we cut the tibial bones and turned them outward in order to point her feet forward. We then placed intramedullary rods down the middle of the bones with interlocking screws at the top and bottom of each bone to maintain the rotation and allow the bones to heal while she rehabbed,” he said.

Since her surgery, Breianna said it is “definitely easier to walk, and I am able to walk faster.” She explained that before surgery she was only able to stand for short periods of time, but after surgery that has improved. 

Breianna has had physical therapy (PT) and occupational therapy (OT) sessions with a variety of professionals. In one of her PT sessions after surgery, Mallory Meyer, PT, D.P.T., noticed that Breianna would pull with her arms and tuck her legs underneath to try to stand after surgery. As a result of this, the physical therapy and medical teams decided Breianna needed more recovery time in between surgery and rehabilitation. After the recovery time, she worked hard for three weeks in PT sessions. She recently graduated from PT, but is still active with OT services at Shriners Children’s Philadelphia.

At Shriners Children’s Philadelphia, our wrap-around care has given Breianna the ability to see providers that help her receive the care she needs while maintaining consistency with the team approach. In addition to her surgeon, she is treated by physical medicine and rehabilitation physicians Richard Goldberg, D.O., and Bethany Lipa, M.D. 

Regarding her quality of care at the hospital, Breianna said, “The people are so connected with you. They want to know your interests, what you like, and connect with you on a personal level. They take my interests into account; they know you.” Breianna’s interests include baking, swimming, reading, journaling, watching wrestling and watching the local Philadelphia sports teams.

Breianna still has frequent OT sessions with Jess Zawrotny, MS, OTR/L, to work on skills that help her live independently in her college apartment and perform tasks that she enjoys in her daily life. With Jess, Breianna creates goals week by week to help her feel confident with accomplishing tasks such as doing her own hair, cooking meals and handling any other physical needs.

Breianna recently worked with Jess during her session to practice her speech that she gave to the Shriners International members of LuLu Shriners during a breakfast meeting. She shared her story in front of over 300 people. That is no easy feat – she worked hard to be confident and used her phone to read her speech. She continues to work on a variety of activities of daily living with Jess during her OT sessions.

Breianna said the accessibility on campus at Immaculata University is “amazing; they shovel for the snow, clear pathways and have buttons on doors to easily open them.” She also explained that initially she struggled to get her wheelchair over a bump in the ground leading into her apartment building. However, this accessibility issue was handled efficiently by the maintenance team, who quickly smoothed over the bump with cement to make entry easier. Additionally, she was able to get first choice of housing and live in an apartment on campus, which is usually only available to upperclassmen.

The advice she would give to other patients looking to be independent and live on campus is, “Even though it’s an adjustment, you have to do it even if you’re scared. Even if you fail, it’s okay because everybody does it.”