Lainie Linafelter experienced the best kind of joy on October 2nd, 2023. The joy of welcoming her new baby, Charlotte, into the world.
But four days later, her family faced a traumatic situation. The 31-year-old new mom woke up with an unbearable migraine.
“The pain was really radiant,” Lainie said. “It started in the back of my head. I just noticed an overwhelming change in pain. I left for the hospital five minutes after it started because I knew how bad it was.”
The ER doctors found a brain bleed. The next day, she had another stroke, leading to a brain hemorrhage, all of which can be a rare complication of labor.
Doctors stabilized Lainie, and she spent two weeks at Menorah Medical Center in Overland Park, Kansas. Then, Lainie, a native of Lincoln, Nebraska, and her family made the decision to bring her home to begin intense therapy at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospitals’ specialized stroke program.
“My family being back in Lincoln and knowing that I could (come home) as an option for therapy was something special,” Lainie said. “Madonna was so highly looked upon. They make miracles.”
Her therapists also knew that she had more than enough motivation to succeed.
“It was really important to her to not only get better for herself, but she needed to get better and be there for her family,” Kelsey Elting, OTD, OTR/L, an occupational therapist, said. “She has a son that’s a toddler and a newborn baby girl and wanted to get back to work and being a mother. And that’s why she came to Madonna.”
Struggling with vision, speech and right-side weakness, Lainie used a wheelchair at first as her primary mode of transportation. Her care team first focused on her balance, functional gross motor activities and self-care needs. They used specialized equipment such as the Functional Electrical Stimulation Bike, the Bioness H200 and the Armeo®Power to strengthen the muscles in her right arm and hand.
Knowing that Lainie’s young age also boosted her need for intense medical rehabilitation, Elting recognized that the repetition was vital to her progress.
“After having a stroke and being a young patient like Lainie was, it really was important to give her as much intensive therapy because of the repetition,” Elting said. “She had more of the energy throughout the day to do all of those things and that therapeutic intensity was a key role in being able to do all of these activities and challenge her every day. That level of therapy got her to the point she is now.”
With a goal of getting patients back to their life roles, Elting and her care team also incorporated motherhood duties into her therapy sessions. They practiced filling and mixing bottles. They used the therapeutic baby to work on holding, burping and feeding techniques, along with diaper changes, pushing a stroller and buckling and unbuckling car seats. Then, they worked up to Lainie’s family bringing her daughter in for additional practice. She even took her first independent steps, pushing Lottie in the stroller.
Day by day, Lainie got stronger and after a month, Lainie transitioned to Madonna’s Rehabilitation Day Program. In this intense outpatient program, her care team switched the focus to her career.
Lainie is a pediatric pharmacist at Children’s Mercy in Kansas City and a professor for the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Pharmacy.
“I love what I do there,” Lainie said. “Working with the kids and providing education, it’s so special.”
Anticipating the high-level career Lainie wanted to return to, she began therapy within Madonna’s Work Re-Entry Program. She started shadowing professionals and assisting with the medication management and distribution in Madonna’s onsite pharmacy. They simulated several of the tasks that Lainie would routinely do.
“The Work Re-Entry Program at Madonna is really great,” Grant Baker, OTD, OTR/L, occupational therapist, said. “Giving her the chance to do some of the more simple tasks that we were able to allow her to do with licensing, gave her the confidence that she could go back to the pharmacy and fit in because she was working side by side our pharmacists here at Madonna.”
Almost four months after welcoming her daughter and sustaining multiple strokes, Lainie left Madonna and returned home to Overland Park. She is eagerly spending her energy on her two kids and will return to Children’s Mercy’s pharmacy in late March.
Lainie handled her journey with grace and trusted that her faith would keep her going.
“I just knew that all we could do is to be positive in this situation and know that everything was going to be all right no matter what,” Lainie said. “God had a plan and he just always does. I have been praying that this is just a little miracle.”