Wedding bells ring for brain injury survivor turned therapist

Just four days before her 21st birthday, in her third year of university occupational therapy (OT) studies, Kayla Smith underwent major surgery to remove two brain tumours.
Five years later, she reflects on her journey of brain injury recovery.

Smith’s brain tumour diagnosis came like a bolt from the blue. Although the craniotomy and brain tumour resection surgery at Netcare Milpark Hospital was successful, the injury to her brain would take time, every ounce of her extraordinary willpower, and a multidisciplinary rehabilitation programme to regain her lost functioning.

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“In the first days after surgery, I could not focus my eyes; I had to learn to make sense of vision and sound again. After a week in the intensive care unit, I was transferred to Netcare Rehabilitation Hospital, where I think my background in occupational therapy made me quite a stubborn patient – always trying to do things for myself, which I thought could help speed up my recovery,” Smith, now 26, recalls of the first few months after her crucial surgery.

The Northcliff resident said it was frustrating at times. She so badly wanted to go home and continue with her normal life, but she was determined to get the most possible out of the month. She spent a month having intensive, multidisciplinary therapy to help her learn to walk again and rebuild her life.

“Kayla was extremely driven and determined to become independent as quickly as possible,” said Dr Anrie Carstens, a general practitioner interested in physical medicine and rehabilitation who was part of the team treating Smith during her admission at Netcare Rehabilitation Hospital in 2020.

“It was around the time when Covid-19 first struck that Smith came to us. Her cerebellum had been affected, and she was struggling with muscle control and coordination on the right side of her body. She was also dizzy and experienced double vision, which contributed to her poor balance.”
Smith was described as having been very involved in her recovery, and with her OT background, realised the value of working hard at her OT, physiotherapy, and speech therapy, and mastering the small steps that add up to reintegrating and regaining independence.

With her unique perspective of brain injury recovery, Smith now recalls that although she was, for the most part, highly motivated for the physical therapies at the time, she was unable to fully appreciate the need for the cognitive aspects of therapy.

“Looking back, I can see how some of my reasoning that made perfect sense to me then differs from how I think now. I was a bit of a rebel from day one at the hospital, and I was quite rigid in my thinking on certain things. For example, I didn’t want to use the wheelchair and I didn’t want to call for assistance going to the bathroom – even though I wasn’t at a stage of recovery where I was physically ready for that,” she said.

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Rehabilitation programme manager Sharize Schaerer was responsible for coordinating Smith’s therapies to ensure they matched her individual needs in an evidence-based model. “We look at the research on the particular type of injury or condition and the length of stay that is likely to be most beneficial to the person with input from an interdisciplinary healthcare team,” Schaerer said.

“We then monitor the person’s rehabilitation progress and ensure they are prepared to cope safely at home before discharge, treating aspects like hand function, strength, balance, endurance and communication, and cognitive functioning.”

Alongside Dr Carstens, a speech therapist, physiotherapist, and occupational therapist of Rita Henn and Partners, a neuropsychologist performed baseline psychometric testing to gain insights into how Smith’s cognitive abilities had been affected and to gauge whether she might be able to return to university and, if so, how long this journey would potentially take.

“In the inpatient phase, we focus on residential integration with the assistance of a social worker. The ultimate aim of our rehabilitation however is to enable our clients to realise and achieve their full potential. Through Kayla’s persistence and hard work and the holistic approach of the interdisciplinary team, she has achieved just that,” added Schaerer.

Smith was discharged after four weeks at Netcare Rehabilitation Hospital, having made considerable progress and continued her therapy on an outpatient basis. “I took the rest of 2020 to focus on my recovery. My parents were very supportive, and even though I sometimes fought with them about doing my exercises, they encouraged me. While we were in hard lockdown, my aunt, who lives down the road from us and is a dance teacher, helped me work on some of the exercises I had been doing in hospital,” said Smith.

In 2021, she resumed her studies at Wits University where she got her best marks trying to prove people wrong about their assumptions. “I returned to the Acquired Brain Injury unit, where I was in Netcare Rehabilitation Hospital for job shadowing. I have since qualified, and now I am an occupational therapist, and I think my own experience has given me insight into the recovery process.”

Recently, Smith and David da Silva, her partner since before her ordeal, announced their engagement and are planning their wedding, the next step in her happily ever after.

“I have seen that it takes a community to support a person after a brain injury. We would be nowhere without all the people who help us in the journey to rebuilding a life. Healthcare professionals, family members, and loved ones make all the difference in our potential for recovery. I was fortunate to have that support in absolute abundance.”

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