‘So Much Life to be Lived’
After treatment in CRU and the SCI Day program, Katie Stembridge hopes to one day become a case manager.
A C-4 spinal cord injury (SCI). Fractures in her legs and pelvis. A traumatic brain injury (TBI). A severe burn on her hand. These were just some of the injuries Katie Stembridge sustained as a passenger in a car crash in October 2022.
Katie, then 21 years old, was taken to the ICU at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital, where she underwent multiple surgeries to stabilize her injuries. She was paralyzed from the chest down, and doctors believed she wouldn’t regain any movement in her arms.
Just before the accident, Katie’s dad had visited a friend receiving treatment at Shepherd Center. When it was time for Katie to move to a rehabilitation hospital, Shepherd was top of mind.
Katie arrived at Shepherd in November, with her older sister Megan taking time away from her work as a travel nurse to be one of Katie’s primary caregivers.
“She was my rock throughout everything,” Katie says of her sister. During Katie's treatment, her sister and parents stayed in Shepherd’s family housing.
In the Comprehensive Rehabilitation Unit (CRU), Katie regained control of her shoulders and biceps. She also learned how to leverage assistive technologies, allowing her to use her phone, get around in a power wheelchair, and feed herself. She says her care team gave her the support she needed through it all — on the days she’d break down crying, they’d comfort her. And on the days she had a success, they’d celebrate alongside her.
“Shepherd Center is like the Disney World of rehab hospitals — everyone is so happy,” she says. “I’m so grateful I ended up at Shepherd.”
CRU also gave Katie a new best friend. Hannah Anderson was also a patient at the time, receiving treatment for Guillain-Barré Syndrome. The two have stayed in touch since Katie graduated from inpatient treatment in February 2023.
Katie has since returned to Shepherd for two rounds of the SCI Day Program, allowing her to continue building mobility in her arms while trying recreation therapy activities like power soccer. Now, she has control of her forearms and wrists. One day, she hopes to become a case manager and return to Shepherd as a staff member, rejoining her friend Hannah, who is now a nurse on CRU.
In the meantime, Katie has returned to many of the activities she enjoyed before her injury, like going out to dinner with friends and cheering on her favorite soccer teams, Team USA and Chelsea F.C. She also loves traveling and recently went on a trip to Montana with her sister and cousin.
“It’s nice because I still get to be 23,” Katie says. “Shepherd showed me I still have so much life to be lived.”
Written by Erin Kenney
With five decades of experience, Shepherd Center provides world-class clinical care, research, and family support for people experiencing the most complex conditions, including spinal cord and brain injuries, multi-trauma, traumatic amputations, stroke, multiple sclerosis, and pain. An elite center ranked by U.S. News as one of the nation’s top hospitals for rehabilitation, Shepherd Center is also recognized as both Spinal Cord Injury and Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems. Shepherd Center treats thousands of patients annually with unmatched expertise and unwavering compassion to help them begin again.