Posted on April 15, 2020
Co-workers who both had strokes reunite during rehabilitation
Mary Free Bed may not seem an obvious choice of location for a reunion of friends, but two co-workers found themselves going through rehabilitation together.
Ricky Belton was getting ready for work at Ranir on March 16 when he started having balance issues. He went to work anyway, but his condition grew worse. Co-workers took him to Mercy Health Saint Mary’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, where doctors determined Ricky had experienced a stroke that affected the left side of his body and impaired his ability to walk. On March 19, he came to Mary Free Bed to begin rehabilitation.
Recreational therapists Brie Taylor and Deb Brewer recognized they had another patient with a similar story.
A week earlier, Corbie Williams experienced a stroke that affected the left side of his body. And Corbie also works at the Kentwood company.
As it turns out, Ricky of Grand Rapids, and Corbie, of Wyoming, worked together on the same shift at Ranir for 12 years. Their schedules recently changed, and they hadn’t seen each other.
Brie and Deb arranged for the pair to play the card game Spades as part of their recreational therapy.
“It was me and Corbie against our therapists, and we taught them the game,” Ricky said. “We beat them the first couple of times, but they came back and got us in the last game.”
At one of the pair’s final recreational therapy sessions before graduating last week from the Stroke Rehabilitation program, Ricky and Corbie played cornhole in the Therapy Garden.
“I’ve had a great experience with everyone I’ve met at Mary Free Bed,” Ricky said. Corbie shared that he’d like to become a mentor for patients in the future.
To maintain the similarities of their experience, Ricky and Corbie graduated within a day of each other and will continue their rehabilitation journey with outpatient therapy.
