Nurse Who Was Paralyzed During Nursing School Now Cares For Patients With Spinal Injuries

"I know that many people have never seen a nurse like me before, but in reality, I am not unique," Stewart says.

While many nursing students find the weeks leading up to finals to be stressful, Rachel Stewart, now a BSN, RN, from Houston, Texas, experienced what you could say was a highly abnormal level of stress before her final week of the third semester of nursing school back in December 2020.

After passing out at home, Stewart was rushed to the hospital, where doctors discovered she had a pneumothorax and internal bleeding caused by a "massive" spinal nerve tumor. "At that point, the tumor was growing into my lung and beginning to invade my spine," Stewart explains. 

She had a procedure to reduce some of the blood supply feeding the tumor, but unfortunately, because some of the blood supply to the tumor also ran to her spinal cord, the surgery caused a T4 spinal cord injury. T4 spinal nerves run along the mid-chest, so injury to that area can result in full or partial paralysis in the legs, weakness in the trunk and body, problems with bladder and bowel control, and other health-related conditions. 

Immediately following her injury, Stewart says that finishing nursing school was not even remotely on her mind. But as her journey to recovery began, she would realize that her nursing journey was not over either.

"One Day at a Time"

Stewart realized that she was paralyzed upon waking up in the OR after her surgery, and her journey to relearning life as a disabled person started in that moment. She tells Nurse.org that a spinal cord injury (SCI) is so much more than physical—it's an entirely emotional experience as well. 

"Getting injured opens up a whole new world, and it can be overwhelmingly scary to people," she explains. "Getting a SCI comes with a grieving process. You grieve the person that you were before you were injured, before you can move into your new life…Dealing with those feelings is something I had to do on my journey to getting to where I am now."

Embarking on the physical and emotional journey of recovering after her injury was not an easy one. Her entire focus shifted from dreaming of a future taking care of others to taking everything "one day at a time" in her own care. 

"I was learning how to transfer in and out of a wheelchair, drive again, and work on physical therapy," she describes. 

After she completed rehab and another surgery, however, Stewart says that her friends, family, and mentor all informed her that she would be going back to nursing school. " I wasn’t given room to think that nursing school was no longer an option for me," she laughs. 

Remarkably, one of her nursing professors, Colonel (ret.) Rob Harmon, PhD, had also experienced a spinal cord injury, which resulted in him being a wheelchair user. 

"What are the chances of that?" Stewart marvels. "He brought me into the lab at school and taught me how to do every nursing skill you can think of from a wheelchair."

With full credit to the incredible support system she had, Stewart reshaped the future she had once envisioned for herself in a new way. And in fact, she says her experience "completely invigorated" her passion for nursing. "I was fortunate to have so many incredible nurses while I was an inpatient," she notes. "I felt a responsibility to pay forward all the compassion and care I had received."

Today, Stewart has done just that, graduating from nursing school and starting her first official nursing job as an RN at Memorial Hermann in Houston. And the specialty she chose? Working with patients in the spinal cord injury rehab center.  

The Making of a "Great" Nurse

Before her injury, Stewart says her picture of a "great nurse" included someone who was "super smart" and always on top of their charting and nursing tasks. And while she notes that those are important, she also realized that those were not the things that she remembered in her nurses when she was the patient. 

"I remember the nurse who washed my hair with real shampoo and water after a whole month of shampoo caps," she says. "I remember the nurse who brought me a bag of my favorite snack on Christmas when I couldn’t see family in the hospital during the pandemic. I remember the nurse who brought me outside in the sun after being indoors for 6 weeks. I remember the nurse who shared how she went through chemo during nursing school."

"I want to be that nurse for other people," Stewart adds emphatically. 

Stewart chose to be that type of nurse specifically for patients with spinal cord injuries because, firstly, she laughs she had "pre-studied for the role" but also felt she had the most to offer to patients with spinal cord injuries.

"I want to be able to show people that there is a life after a spinal cord injury," she explains. "They are still lovable. They can still be good parents, partners, and friends. They are still deserving of happiness."

Stewart bases her time with her patients on the tasks that meant so much to her as a patient, starting with simply making time to sit and listen with her patients when she can. 

"A lot of newly injured folks have concerns and worries on the tip of their tongue, but don’t know who to share those thoughts with," she notes. " I let people know it’s perfectly normal to feel a sense of denial, anger, or depression after their life is completely turned around."

Along with nurturing their emotional journeys, Stewart enjoys the opportunity to introduce people to new ways of taking care of themselves, like self-cathing and bowel programs. "I think it puts people at ease to know that they aren’t alone and that nothing they’re experiencing is embarrassing," she adds. "I always tell people, 'I’m sorry you ended up here, but welcome to the spinal cord injury community.'"

She sees the progress patients make, such as learning to eat again, removing a PEG tube, learning how to successfully transfer, or even drive again, as the most rewarding part of her job. 

"There’s so much joy in those wins," she notes. 

Strength in Diversity

With respect to her injuries, Stewart has also experienced her own wins. She can now walk and uses a cane and her wheelchair for assistance when needed. "I started nursing school at age 22, well before having any health issues," she explains. "I went from being a super average appearing nursing student to being a student on wheels and then a student with a cane as I learned to walk more."

But while the physical aspects of her journey are perhaps the most visible, she says they have not been the hardest. "The most challenging aspect of my journey has not been my disability itself—it has always been a lack of accessibility or assumptions from other people," she explains. 

"Around 20% of the population is disabled, and yet you do not see many disabled healthcare providers," she points out. "I find that unfortunate because diversity in a healthcare team makes that team stronger and better able to address the unique needs of patients."

Along with her own vital presence on the floor, Stewart says she has seen progress in more diverse representation of disabled people in healthcare. For instance, she points to the Netflix medical show, "Pulse," which features a wheelchair user doctor played by disabled actress Jessy Yates.

"That’s huge!" says Stewart.

As for her own future, Stewart is enjoying her time with her loved ones—she's the oldest of five college-aged sisters who all live together with their mom—their pets (they have five dogs and five foster puppies, a bearded dragon, a hamster, a tarantula, and an axolotl!), hiking, antiquing, and checking out the Houston food scene. "I'm a big foodie!" Stewart exclaims. 

She shares that her next goal is to get certified in rehab, but for now, in my first year of nursing, she is focused on learning. "I’m super thankful I have such an amazing unit culture and management that wants to see their nurses grow in their roles," she says. "I’m looking forward to finding my footing in nursing."

Stewart also reminds Nurse.org readers that the disability community "is the one minority group that anyone can join at any time," so awareness and advocacy are crucial for all.

"Pushes for accessibility in housing, education, and the workplace are for the benefit of everyone," she points out. "We have a ways to go in the field of nursing to make nursing education and employment accessible."

"I know that many people have never seen a nurse like me before, but in reality, I am not unique," she continues. I’ve met so many other healthcare providers with disabilities over the last few years who work in pretty much every practice setting you can think of. I hope that we can eventually push the needle enough that you can see someone like me running around in scrubs, and it's so mundane, you don’t bat an eye."

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