Injured teen works back toward health at Children’s south

2-year process continues

BY THELMA GRIMES TGRIMES@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Autumn Fann is counting down the months until she can be done with physical therapy and the healthcare required to get her knees back on track.

e 15-year-old from Centennial said she’s 21 months into physical therapy with optimism that upcoming tests will show she is ready to go back to a normal teenage life — one that does not require regular visits to Children’s Hospital Colorado’s south campus in Highlands Ranch.

While Fann said the doctors and physical therapists at the south campus are great, she’s had a long journey that has been mentally and physically exhausting.

e issues started for Fann in eighth grade when she dislocated her knee. After some treatment and healing, she thought she was better, but an incident at school was a setback — another student kicked her and her knee was dislocated again.

e problem this time, however, was her tendons had been stretched too much, requiring surgery to repair it. is meant a lot of physical therapy and a recovery process that brought Fann to a point where she wanted to just give up.

In the summer between graduating from eighth grade and preparing for her rst year of high school, Fann said she wanted to do what all teenagers do. She wanted to be around friends. She wanted to go about her daily activities without physical con- straints.

With the extent of her injury, that wish was not possible. After surgery, Fann said she was in a wheelchair and could not sustain a lot of walking.

“I just kind of plateaued and I didn’t want to work on it anymore,” she said.

After two surgeries, she started attending therapy sessions at the sports center at Children’s south campus. In that time, Fann said she has gone four di erent physical therapists.

“I love them, and I am going to miss them,” she said. “Some of them help with my attitude control. Some of them focus on my exercises. ey are all my buddies.”

Fann’s mom, Jessica, said the convenience of having services available at the south campus in Highlands Ranch near their Centennial home has been helpful over the last two years. She also credits the work of the physical therapists at the south campus for keeping Fann on track and meeting her speci c needs on a particular day.

“ ey are supportive and motivational even on her bad days,” Jessica said. “( e team) can read her well and adjust their approach as needed. ey can be adaptive. Having people who understand the biology of a kid but also be able to work with the individual is important. Some days she needs a softer approach. Others, they push harder and motivate. ey work with where she is.”

To get cleared, Fann will have to go through a series of tests, describing one of the machines her knees will be hooked to a something out of a “scimovie,” where the agility and stability of her knees will be tested.”