Physical therapy student lands prestigious role in national organization
March 28, 2024 • Uncategorized
When Jonathan Hansen was an undergraduate intern at Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital, he encountered a man who had just suffered a stroke. The patient’s right side was completely paralyzed. Hansen, now a first-year student in The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth’s Department of Physical Therapy, worked closely with the patient.
“I looked forward to seeing him every day,” Hansen said. “He was always so optimistic about getting better.
“We worked with him for a few months,” he continued. “I watched him progress from being strapped onto an arm bike to gripping the arm bike, and then from being in a wheelchair to using a walker. One day he walked into the clinic and just stood there. It was that moment when I knew I’d made a difference.”
After that experience and others, Hansen realized he wanted to specialize in neurological physical therapy, which brought the Fort Worth native to his hometown for graduate school. He recently achieved an important milestone toward that end: Hansen was selected as the American Parkinson’s Disease Association Liaison for the Academy of Neurologic Physical Therapy, an honor not normally given to first-year students.
Read the rest of the story on HSC’s newsroom.
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