Occupational Therapy: A Milestone in My Life Samantha Morell Keiser University Occupational Therapy: A Milestone in My Life The profession of occupational therapy, specifically pediatric occupational therapy, has captured my interest. I believe that I understand children and I can establish meaningful connections with them. Children who have experienced comas or physical disabilities such as Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) need occupational therapy. I have always known that I wanted to do something meaningful with my life that included pediatrics, but I never knew exactly what I wanted to do with children until I went through my own trauma. In 2012, due to a rare case of pneumonia, I went into respiratory arrest, and the doctors put me into an induced coma. I contracted this pneumonia during one of my senior year trips in high school. I had many expectations about how this time in my life would be fun and wonderful, but it ended up being extremely difficult. This …show more content…
For children, spending less time in recovery after coma is essential, it’s not sufficient enough to recover from a coma, but it is crucial that patients suffer no neurological issues (Karma & Rawat, 2006). Occupational therapy is important for an early and speedy recovery in order for the patient to be treated with the appropriate methods of healing. A physical disability such as TBI, “encompasses a wide range of severity from mild to severe” (Powell, 2016, p.1). Since TBI sustains a wide spectrum of injuries, occupational therapy has different methods that can be useful in completing the patient’s treatment. According to Janet Powell, the main injuries for TBI are falling, car accidents, or blunt force trauma to the head (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015, as cited by Powell, 2016). Patients suffering from TBI can be medically induced into a coma depending on the severity of their