Real Miracles, Healing Stories
Karine Aebi—The Never Ending Ladder—Reaching New Highs
Now in her eighth year as a firefighter, including three years with the Caldwell
Fire Department, Boisean Karine Aebi was not about to let three back surgeries
stand in the way of her beloved profession.
"I work hard and play hard and don't want to give either of them up," said the 36-year-old woman, who is one of the two full-time career female fire fighters on the 32-person team at her fire department. As an avid motorcyclist, water skier, and snow skier, who previously was a semi-pro race car driver, taking on the lengthy back rehabilitation process was just another step in her exciting life.
It all started with a back surgery in 2002 to correct a back problem that had developed between the time she served as a firefighter in eastern Washington and when she moved to Boise. Then an on-the-job injury with the Caldwell Fire Department during a residential home fire in August 2003 resulted in a second back surgery.
She prepared to return to employment by attending the Work Hardening Program offered through Saint Alphonsus Rehabilitation Services (STARS). Conducted by therapists at the Work STAR Occupational Rehabilitation Program, her intensive rehabilitation activities ran four hours per day, five days per week. Services included strength training, functional movement education, back school and job site simulation.
Karine eagerly returned to work, but continued to experience pain. Persisting in her search for the cause of her pain, she was impressed with the load bearing MRI conducted at the Intermountain Medical Imaging Center in Boise. The procedure identified what a regular MRI did not detect, the source of her back pain.
About this time, doctors were suggesting that she might want to find another job. She thought about a career change and decided being a firefighter is what she loved to do, enjoying the physical and mental challenges of the job. "If I can do it, don't hold me back," she said.
So it was on to a third back surgery that included disk fusions, followed by another round with the Work STAR Program. Intensive rehabilitation activities, combined with Karine's drive to get back to fire fighting, worked their magic. Within six months of time, she went from her third back surgery to her employment as a firefighter, lifting persons on stretchers into ambulances, moving large fire ladders and hauling fire hoses by hand. "That Work Hardening Program offered by Saint Alphonsus Rehabilitation Services is just fantastic," she said.
Acknowledging the physical therapist and the occupational therapist who assisted her, Karine added, "I couldn't have done it without Peggy Bailey and Kim Werner at STARS. I would tend to do too much too soon and they would rein me in and keep me at a speed that was most beneficial to my recovery."
Reflecting on her healing experiences of the past three years, which included complications of congestive heart failure and deep vein thrombosis, Karine said, "It forced me to slow down in life, to enjoy and make time to motorcycle." She and her significant other, Keith Broden, who assisted her through her journey back to health, have just completed a late summer, three-day motorcycle trip through the mountains of Montana and Idaho.
She also competed, over Labor Day Weekend, in the regional Fire Fighter Combat Challenge competition in Texas, as a member of a Treasure Valley all-women team of five, where her task was to lift and carry a 175-pound dummy as quickly as possible for 100 feet. Due to her rehabilitation through the Work STAR Program, she was able to safely pick up the weight while protecting her back.
Her team finished second, qualifying them to compete in the World Firefighter Combat Challenge in November and establishing their team as the fourth best of the U.S. Women's Relay teams.
"I am fortunate and very blessed to still be doing what I love to do, thanks to the doctors and rehab," Karine said. Karine has many professional and recreational adventures ahead of her, due to her determination combined with the healing process of Saint Alphonsus and partners. She plans on remaining in fire service and she is working towards becoming a full-time fire service trainer in the Treasure Valley.
"Don't underestimate your body's ability to heal, adapt and overcome. The body is an amazing machine," Karine said.