By Dawn Brazell
Public Relations

If Hannah Foster could win the lottery, she'd start a clinic for the uninsured so that anyone who needed physical therapy could get the critical treatment they needed regardless of finances.

"I'd want to open a Hotel Rwanda and take in people who needed help," she said, tucking her strawberry blonde hair behind her ear in a decisive move. The College of Health Professions graduate landed a competitive position at Brooks Rehabilitation Hospital in Jacksonville, Fla., where she will start a neurologic physical therapy residency after graduation.

Her toughest challenge isn't the heartbreaking cases she sees of her patients with brain and spinal cord injuries. It's seeing the ones who lack the funds to continue their treatment. Though she knows she can't help them all, many of them she knows she can.

"I just love helping people. I volunteer a lot because I just really love to help people. The thing I love about physical therapy is that you spend so much time with your patients, and you help them restore some function that they've lost and give them back a quality of life."

Hannah Foster

Her mentor, Sara V. Kraft, DPT, said Foster's main strength is her compassion that comes through in her work. "She truly empathizes with her patients and goes above and beyond for them on a regular basis. I think a compassionate clinician makes the best clinician."

Praising Foster for how she consistently volunteered for various community projects, Kraft found Foster gives back to her profession in the same manner.

"Hannah adds enthusiasm, caring and a thirst for knowledge that will help her grow as a therapist."

That already is evident.

On her rotation in an acute care facility in Myrtle Beach, Foster met a woman who was overwhelmed in dealing with her diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. She was bawling one day as she talked to Foster, who didn't just want to refer the tired patient to online resources that might add to her frustration.

Foster decided instead to go to the best online sources and distill the critical information that would most help her.

During the next three weeks in addition to her class work, she compiled an 88-page booklet that now the National Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society is looking at publishing.

Kraft said the booklet is a prime example how Foster goes above and beyond for her patients and that it will be a resource that will go beyond helping that one patient with multiple sclerosis.

Foster is thrilled the booklet might be used on a wider scale. She said she worries about her patients
and doesn't like sending them home to do research on their own. Patient education is so important in a person's ability to get better results in therapy. It's one of the reasons she wrote the MS booklet, said the St. Louis native.
MUSC was one of the few schools Foster applied to outside of the Midwest. When she toured the campus, she just knew this was the right place, she said.

The people were friendly and faculty seemed passionate about the field. She chose physical therapy because she was interested in the medical field and likes how therapists spend quality time with their patients. She fell in love with the neurological part of her field during that part of her coursework.

Though working on a brain injury unit can be discouraging and really sad at times, there also are moments of touching victories, she said. She's learned to focus her energy on the positive small signs of improvement. "When you start seeing progress, it's more motivating than discouraging."

She's excited to graduate and be able to apply what she's learned in the field. She's grateful to a faculty that has been generous with time and passion, including Kraft. "When you're learning from someone who is so passionate about it, it makes it so much easier."

She also credits her parents with her success so far. "It was a great home to grow up in. I've always felt supported—no matter what."

It's a feeling she wants to pass on to her patients, she said.

"That's what drew me to the neuro side of physical therapy. I love that at the end of the day if you've had a successful day with a patient that you can be giving them something back—like taking steps again or being able to move their arm again. It's all these different things that are so life-changing for them that you can give back to them.

"I just love that part of neuro—when you have a good day—you really have a good day."