Aart Van Gorkum
I grew up playing every sport imaginable. It was finally through competitive baseball that I ended up at the Physiotherapist hoping they could put my arm back together. They did all they could do and to extend my playing career, and I knew then that I wanted to become a Physiotherapist. I have been happily practicing now for the last 25 years.
My true inspiration however, came much later during one of my clinical placements as a physiotherapy student. I was going to treat a patient in her late seventies who had very poor health, including congestive heart failure and many other ailments that were never going to improve. She was terminally ill and had given up on life. I with all my 22 years of life experience was going to make her better and do whatever it took to get her out of bed and moving. I could simply not understand that someone could just give up on life. I was determined. Needless to say, nothing I did that first day did anything to get her out of bed and/or moving. I remember being so disappointed and disheartened. In the subsequent review of the session with my preceptor, I mentioned my frustrations. He simply looked at me and said: “next time, why don’t you just sit down and talk to her.” What a novel concept. So the very next day I sat down on her bed and we talked. It did not take long for her to warm up to me and in no time at all I had her walking down the hall, doing some exercises, and laughing. There was no fancy manual therapy and complex treatments involved and in the end I did not save her life but, knowing that I had made difference in the last few weeks of her life was my inspiration and showed me the true potential we have as Physiotherapists to touch peoples’ lives.