Select Specialty Hospital - Knoxville

09/13/2025

A traumatic car crash left Zecharias “Z” McKinney with a spinal cord injury that paralyzed him from the waist down. He needed help just to sit upright in bed and he wondered how this injury would affect life ahead. Z arrived at Baylor Scott & White Institute for Rehabilitation - Dallas feeling little hope. But despair turned to determination when he started working with the hospital’s care team. They helped him rebuild strength, taught him mobility strategies and rekindled his hope for the future.

To learn more about Select Medical’s network of hospitals, visit: https://www.selectmedical.com/about-us/

A traumatic car crash left Zecharias “Z” McKinney with a spinal cord injury that paralyzed him from the waist down. He came to Baylor Scott & White Institute for Rehabilitation - Dallas to learn how to live independently.

09/11/2025

Never Forget.

09/10/2025

Some patients watch the clock for a special moment—regular food day.

A speech-language pathologist at Helen M. Simpson Rehabilitation Hospital in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, remembers a patient who pushed himself every day to improve his swallowing ability. He started by digesting thin liquids and advanced to slowly chewing and swallowing solids all toward one tasty goal: his wife’s lasagna. Once he passed his swallowing tests and got care team approval, his wife brought it to him along with a slice of homemade peach pie.

Another speech-language pathologist at Northshore Rehabilitation Hospital in Lacombe, Louisiana, helped a patient practice swallowing like it was an Olympic event. His payoff: a trip to the hospital’s annual crawfish boil. Peeling the crawfish was a chance to exercise his fine motor skills. But eating them? The pure bliss of a hard-won, gold medal.

Sometimes an injury to the back or neck comes between food-loving patients and their nosh of choice.

Spinal cord injuries – particularly in the C1 and C2 vertebrae at the base of the skull – can cause dysphagia, or an inability to swallow. About 41% of people with quadriplegia suffer difficulty swallowing, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Often the problems are temporary and caused by inflammation after surgery. Doctors often perform assessments to find muscles not doing their jobs.
If they spot muscle weaknesses, therapists can apply a range of techniques to address those muscle deficiencies. Patients may do chin tucks against resistance or move food around their mouth differently to compensate for weaknesses. There’s even a device that operates like a bench press for your tongue—resistance training which builds the muscles that move food from mouth to throat.

Most of all, therapists ask patients to practice swallowing.
Often it takes plenty of practice to get back to solid food. Patients start with liquidized food, move to pureed, minced-and-moist, soft and bite-sized, easy-to-chew and finally … regular foods, that special moment.

09/09/2025

Respiratory therapists (RTs) are frequently part of the care team for spinal cord injury (SCI) patients in our critical illness recovery hospitals. Depending on the level of injury or loss of function, RTs provide:
• Tracheostomy and ventilator support
• Breathing exercises
• Oxygen and secretion management

RTs are heavily involved in treating patients with significant loss of function, or where the SCI interferes with the muscles involved in breathing. Therapists will work to free the patient from the ventilator, or if that isn’t achievable, reduce dependence on the device to the lowest level possible.

As part of the care team, RTs also help with returning a patient’s voice using a speaking valve, assist with the mobility of ventilated patients and manage oxygen levels during intense physical and occupational therapy sessions.

RTs play a key role in patient and family training as well, teaching tracheostomy care and secretion management techniques.

09/06/2025

After collapsing in his bathroom, doctors diagnosed Bobby Smith with osteomyelitis of the thoracic vertebrae, a rare infection of the spine that causes the bone to weaken. After spinal surgery, Bobby spent three weeks recovering in the ICU before transitioning to Select Specialty Hospital - West Tennessee. There, a physician-led care team developed a personalized treatment plan to help Bobby recover from his spinal cord injury and get one step closer to returning home.

To learn more about Select Medical’s network of hospitals, visit: https://www.selectmedical.com/about-us/

Bobby Smith, 52, underwent spinal surgery after a bacterial infection weakened his vertebrae. He spent three weeks recovering in the ICU, unable to move, stand up or walk. To help him return to his feet, Bobby was transferred to Select Specialty Hospital - West Tennessee. There he would complete a c...

09/05/2025

Stacy Wilhelm was a busy teacher, author, wife and mother before complications following heart surgery landed her in an intensive care unit. Stacy was in and out of consciousness for five weeks, lost her left hand and several times, her family steeled themselves for the worst. Stacy never gave up. When she finally stabilized, she turned to the multidisciplinary team at Select Specialty Hospital - Dallas Plano to help her relearn to breathe, eat, talk and get back on her feet. Stacy’s grit and hard work paid off when she danced with her son at his wedding.

Read her story here: https://bit.ly/480SuhR

09/04/2025

For those living with a spinal cord injury (SCI), most want to know how their quality of life will change.

Our teams are often asked:
“When can I resume doing what I love to do?”
“Will I be able to return to school or work?”

Through our personalized treatment plans for every SCI patient, our therapy and clinical teams create a foundation of skills to support the entire recovery journey. We focus on stretches, weight shifts in wheelchairs and joint range of motion exercises just to name a few. These skills help to set up our patients for achieving their recovery goals following injury.

This month, we’ll be highlighting our “Back to Basics” series, covering each care team member’s role in a SCI patient’s journey.

09/02/2025

September marks Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Awareness Month. According to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, approximately 17,000 Americans acquire an SCI each year.

No two SCIs are the same, and a patient’s outcome can vary based on a number of factors, including the level of early intervention care and intensive rehabilitation.

Throughout SCI Awareness Month, we’ll be introducing a “Back to Basics” series, sharing information about SCI and how our care teams support patients as they work to recover as much function as possible.

09/01/2025

This Labor Day, we extend our gratitude to all health care professionals who dedicate themselves to the care of their patients and the well-being of the communities they serve.

08/26/2025

Laz Reeder’s surgical complications caused respiratory failure so severe that a ventilator’s highest settings couldn’t deliver enough oxygen. Laz, 35, was then connected to ECMO, a specialized life support. As his wife Sierra waited and prayed by his side, family cared for their infant daughter. One month later, Laz was healing but still fed through tubes, too weak to care for himself and unable to walk more than a few steps. He and Sierra turned to Select Specialty Hospital - Pensacola and its inpatient rehabilitation, Select Medical Rehabilitation - Pensacola, to continue his recovery. Today, Laz is home, back to work and enjoying his family.

Read his story here: https://bit.ly/4fV8ynu

07/04/2025

We wish you and your family a safe and happy Fourth of July.

06/19/2025

Today, we acknowledge the importance of Juneteenth, which commemorates the abolition of slavery.

06/02/2025

When Robert "Dayton" Livingston, Deputy Sheriff of Cocke County, suddenly developed chest pains, his wife rushed him to the hospital emergency department (ED) where doctors determined Dayton was battling necrotizing pancreatitis—a severe inflammation which causes tissue death in the pancreas—kidney failure and colitis. After he stabilized following treatment, Dayton chose Select Specialty Hospital - Knoxville for continued recovery.

Read his story: https://bit.ly/4js3eIb

Cosby, Tennessee, resident Robert “Dayton” Livingston spends his days helping others. The 59-year-old serves as Deputy Sheriff of Cocke County while raising three children with his wife, Carol. The couple also runs a community soup kitchen. When Dayton suddenly developed chest pains, Carol rushe...