CRAIG HOSPITAL FOUNDATION FALL 2023 NEWSLETTER
SHOWING UP WITH COURAGE EACH AND EVERY DAY On December 8, 2022, with his wife by his side, Scott Muirhead walked out of Craig Hospital. His entire care team cheering him on. “It was a total shock seeing everybody outside to cheer me on, even my doctor,” Scott explains. “It was an intense experience that I’ll never ever forget. It was truly motivating and absolutely amazing.” What’s even more amazing is that the 47-yearold pilot arrived at Craig Hospital just eight weeks earlier—having survived a helicopter crash in Fresno, California. Mechanical Failure On a fateful Saturday morning in early October, Scott was performing a maintenance check flight. He took off from the Fresno Yosemite Airport. He was making a left turn when the helicopter lost tail rotor control (the device that holds the aircraft straight), causing the helicopter to spiral uncontrollably. “The helicopter was spinning as I desperately tried to avoid houses, cars and people,” he recalls. “I ended up in a residential neighborhood, crash landing in somebody’s front yard.” Scott and his colleague rushed to get out of the destroyed helicopter. “We knew we had to exit quickly in case the debris caught fire,” he says. “But when I reached over to unbuckle my seatbelt, I realized that I couldn’t move my legs.”
A T12 Burst Fracture At Fresno Community Regional Hospital, Scott remembers meeting the chief neurosurgeon, who informed him that he would be performing immediate surgery on his back. Scott’s surgery recovery in Fresno took eight days. During that time, his family needed to figure out the next step in his rehab process. “My mother-in-law worked as a nurse for more than 40 years and had recommended Craig to many of her patients,” Scott explains. “It was a simple choice for me—Craig was the best place to go. I needed to be there.” Diving Right In “When I arrived at Craig, I was a little nervous because I had heard about the crazy inpatient schedule—with six to eight hours of therapy each day,” he says. “However, I was also excited. I wondered if I’d be able to do this. At the time, I wasn’t really moving much, maybe a little movement in my big left toe. I had sensation in my legs, but no real functionality. I couldn’t roll myself right or left. I couldn’t do anything on my own, and I needed help with everything. But I felt hopeful because the nurses, doctors and therapists were all so incredible.” said Scott Christina, Scott’s wife, added “They all made me feel like it was going to be okay. We were going to get through this. It felt like a really safe place to land. I was amazed by all of the warmth because I probably had some lingering medical trauma from