East TN woman finds physical therapy after facing issues due to weight

NEWPORT, Tenn. (WATE) — A woman who broke her leg in April is finally receiving badly needed additional therapy so she can resume her life.

At the end of June when Lori Stokes shared several rehabilitation centers had rejected her. She was hoping to find a center near her home in North East Hamblen County that would accept her. Stokes says she was denied additional therapy because of her weight. Two weeks after our story aired , she started therapy in Newport .

Physical therapist Tracie England coached a determined Stokes through a session on a recumbent bike that offers resistance to strengthen not only her left leg that was broken but her weight-bearing right leg as well.

“She has not had an easy road, but she is definitely making progress. I’m proud to say she has been working with a great team of therapists here,” said England.

Stokes is undergoing extensive in-patient therapy at the Newport Health and Rehabilitation Center. She has a room here, a 25-minute drive from her home in Whitesburg. Newport Rehab readily accepted her application after was after a number of other facilities said no.

“I’m just doing a range of motion trying to strengthen this leg up some since I have been off of it for three months. Don’t get me wrong, it still hurts,” said Stokes.

Her right leg was shattered on April 24. She had tripped over a patio paver on her front steps while bringing in groceries. She broke the femur bone leaving an eight-inch scar. After surgery, she remained at the Morristown Hamblen Healthcare System hospital for nearly two weeks. That was followed by intense physical therapy at the Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Hospital in West Knoxville and she was sent home.

Before she broke her leg, Stokes said she didn’t have any problems.

“I was up, moving, and did everything I needed to do,” said Stokes.

For two months, Stokes was unable to receive additional physical therapy for her weight-bearing left leg.

“They tell me they don’t have the staffing to deal with a bariatric patient and or I am over their weight limit, which they couldn’t tell me,” said Stokes.

Stokes couldn’t sleep in her bedroom. Her husband Bobby, who has poor health, can’t lift her into the bed. At five and a half feet tall, Lori weighs 370 pounds. Her bathroom was inaccessible, the door too narrow for her wheelchair. So, she used this portable commode in her living room.

At Newport Rehab, Stokes is on regimen, a tough one, to recovery.

“Nothing should stop her regardless of what comes against her,” said England.

“I want to get well, so I can go home. My thing is, I was wheeled in here, but I am walking out,” said Stokes.

If her doctor says okay, she may be walking out in two weeks.

“That is my goal. I’m gonna walk out of here” said Stokes.

With Stokes’s determination and grit, England believes her patient will be able to walk out of the center, if not on her own, then maybe with the help of a walker. Just a month ago, Stokes didn’t dare to stand up, out of fear she’d fall, and make matters even worse at home. She’s grateful to everyone at the Newport Health and Rehabilitation Center for the care they’ve provided her.

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