Holistic programs for innovative recovery, sports rehabilitation
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Tue, 03 Dec 2019 17:07:04 +0000
How surfer JM Quiblat pulled through because of love, hope and a miracle
Multimedia artist, performer and surfer JM Quiblat got knocked off by big waves and lost consciousness while surfing with friends over a year ago.
From a comatose state, he woke up because of love, hope and a miracle.
For those who stumbled upon and continuously supported #WakeUpJM, this is his story of recovery.
Terror of the last wave
Just before sundown on October 4, 2018, Quiblat and his friends Miguel Vasquez, Justin Allen and Hutch Sabater decided to have one last surf through the waves of General Nakar in Quezon before calling it a day.
“My friends were starting to go out of the water but Migs [Vasquez] and I decided to have one last surf. And then, I passed a wave. The tide gain was low and big waves came toward me knocking me off. That was when I lost consciousness,” he recalled.
Luckily, Vasquez felt his hair and managed to pull him ashore. For four minutes, the multimedia artist-surfer was not breathing. With a faint pulse, his body turned purple.
His friends did everything to rescue him. Fortunately, Sabater knew how to administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), a critical procedure to restore immediate spontaneous blood circulation and breathing.
As Quiblat regained his breath, the group took him to the nearby hospital. But the attending physician told them that he needed more stringent attention so they rushed him to a hospital in Manila.
Breathing a new life
CPR had extended Quiblat’s hours, but he was not far from death. He continued to cough blood, turning the ambulance walls and floor crimson red, as he also incurred lung damage from the accident. Seconds after being admitted to the hospital, he fell into a coma and experienced a seizure.
He suffered from status epilepticus — a continuous state of seizures with a very high mortality rate. Most of those who suffer from this condition do not recover because the longer the seizure, the heavier its toll on the brain. With this, he had to be paralyzed by doctors by inducing hypothermia; so, his brain would not get further damage.
With everything up to the Supreme Being, the following hours determined if he would live or kick the bucket. His family had prepared for the worst, realizing the severity of his injuries. But then, against overwhelming odds, happened — he regained full consciousness. His resilience kept his pulse going and enabled him to cling to life.
On the road to recovery
After few months and a couple of operations, he woke up from the coma and underwent physical therapy to fully recover from the accident.
At first, the sessions were intended to at least get him to move and somehow live a normal life, but he showed great progress. Standing and balancing were just some of the things he immediately achieved after some sessions.
He and mom Jocelyn then learned about Sante Fitness Lab (SFL) — a premier one-stop fitness center offering holistic training programs, as well as innovative recovery and sports rehabilitation.
According to Rheysonn Cornilla, Quiblat’s coach and physical therapist at SFL, among the patient’s concerns were his troubles with sudden and vigorous maneuvers. He was missing movement components because of the severe brain injury. The trauma made him forget the basics in moving some parts of his body, his legs in particular without which athletic activities would be impossible to do.
To solve motion problems, an intricate program was readied for him; so, he could be reminded of even the small details lost due to coma.
“We assessed JM based on his needs, and we tied it up with his goals. He wanted to go back to surfing, but in his current state, that would be impossible. To achieve the difficult tasks, we needed to reintegrate him with the basic pieces — the little steps that all add up to accomplish more complex movements. The program for his goal teaches him to balance himself out, learn how and when to move his feet and how to correctly shift his weight. These things were lost due to brain injury,” Cornilla explained.
Since Quiblat’s recovery program was tailor-fitted to his needs, every session also entailed an evaluation to prepare for the next one. This set up ensured he slowly regained what he had lost.
For the loving mother, SFL somehow answered her prayers.
“I call them the ‘Eagle Eye.’ By just looking at JM, they can point out what my son needs to relearn. It was only in SFL that I learned that movement required particularity — that when you can move normally, you would not realize it since it was all-natural to you. I am grateful for JM’s progress. After three sessions, he can already walk; after the fourth, he started running!” she added.
Next goal: To surf again
What was thought to be a goal of just living a normal life, at most, had now become a chase for passion once more.
Before attending the program at SFL, to surf again was impossible. Quiblat almost died and it is painful to imagine what he went through. It really took more than a miracle to allow him to accomplish what he can do now.
Still undergoing rehabilitation, there is no definite time as to when he will regain all his motor skills. But to surf again, as he said, is his current goal.
“I’m not a pro surfer. I just love the ocean. As Filipinos, we’re living in an island nation; so, I think it’s important for us to have a relationship with the ocean. I couldn’t find enough words to thank God, as well as all of the people who got involved in giving me my second life. Soon, with the help of SFL, I will be back in the water, riding the waves,” Quiblat concluded.