Natalie's Everyday Heroes: Everyone wins at Carroll University's CURE Clinic
WAUKESHA, Wis. (CBS 58) -- The Carroll University Rehabilitative Exercise Clinic - also known as the CURE Clinic - pairs Carroll student with patients to help with all kinds of rehab.
It's a win-win program. Patients get the care they need. Students get hands-on experience. We saw that firsthand when we sat down with stroke survivor Joe Inzeo.
"You grooving?"
"Yeah!" Inzeo exclaimed at the start of a recent session.
Any good workout starts with a warm-up, and Joe Inzeo is here to do the work.
"He's always ready to talk, ready to go. He's probably one of the most motivated people I've ever met," said Layla Tank, who worked with Inzeo last semester.
He's been coming to the CURE Clinic for more than four semesters. He's working to recover from multiple strokes that left him paralyzed on his left side.
"I had to learn how to eat, walk, talk," he said.
He's doing it with a smile.
"He's willing to crack a joke whenever," Tank said.
"First discipline I graduated was speech therapy," Inzeo said with a laugh.
Inzeo has the gift of gab, which has helped the bonds he's made here at the CURE Clinic.
"Now it's like family," he said.
For all the help Inzeo is getting, he's helping the therapists here, too.
"There is not another experience like this in the area at all," said Dr. Karen Buckley.
Buckley says everyone working with a patient is a student.
"Oh, to be able to get clinical experience as an undergrad is really unheard of," Tank said.
She worked with Inzeo for 10 weeks last semester before graduating with a degree in exercise science.
"After working with Joe, I think stroke rehab would definitely be an area that I'd love to work in," she said.
The progress they made encouraged Inzeo to do something he thought he'd never do again.
"When I got up there and started doing it, I was like 10 feet up," he said.
With Tank there to cheer him on, he went rock climbing at Adventure Rock in Brookfield.
"I climbed the wall two times. And made it to the top both times. Cried like a baby each time I did," he said.
Each rep at the CURE Clinic is getting patients closer to their goals, and Tank closer to hers.
"I've seen people over my five semesters, that have come here doing this much and left here doing this much or more," Inzeo said.
"It's confirming to know that I'm in the right field," Tank said. "That I'm going to love my job. I'm going to love what I do, and I already love it."
The CURE Clinic works with cancer survivors, stroke patients and other comorbidities.
Tank graduated with her degree in exercise science and will start her master's in occupational therapy this summer.
Inzeo just started a new semester with a new therapist. For more information on CURE, click here.
If you'd like to nominate an Everyday Hero, send Natalie a message at [email protected].