Life Care Center of South Hill helps Hood recover from car accident

By Cyndi Anderson, business development and community relations director

On Dec. 1, 2016, Lisa Hood, a loving wife, mother, new grandmother, beloved hair dresser and friend, was hit head-on by a drunk driver.

She survived, but her injuries were extensive.

Hood had a fractured manubrium, broken right wrist, shattered left forearm, three cracked ribs and two breaks in her pelvis. Her hip was crushed and detached from her spine and pelvis. She underwent several surgeries to rebuild her pelvis, reattach her hip and put pins and plates in her arm. She required three blood transfusions.

Hood's injures were so severe that her family was told that most people with these injuries do not survive. Thankfully, she did not have a head or spinal injury.

About three weeks after her accident, Hood was moved to Life Care Center of South Hill in Puyallup, Washington, to continue her rehabilitation. She received both occupational therapy and physical therapy almost every day.

When Hood arrived at Life Care Center of South Hill, she had no mobility and required three people to assist her out of bed. She stood for the first time in months on Feb. 14, and six weeks later walked out the front door back to her life.

Discharged from Life Care Center of South Hill on March 31, 2017, Hood is using a cane to get around home now and has not yet returned to the salon where she was a stylist. She has ongoing pain and stiffness but is grateful for the support of her family, her medical team and the community, which has rallied around her to help with medical expenses.

Hood credits the King County Medic One paramedics and her team of doctors at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with her survival and the staff of Life Care with getting her literally back up on her feet.

"They told me early on that I would walk out of here," Hood said of her therapists. "I thought they were crazy. There was no way I believed it, but here I am walking out."

Hood will require at least two more surgeries in the coming months and continues her emotional healing as well.