It is estimated that around 276,000 people in the U.S. live with spinal cord injuries, and

there are around 12,500 new spinal cord injury cases every year. With such high numbers it is important for doctors and physical therapists to stay on the cutting edge of recovery technologies and techniques, and at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, they are pushing that edge even further.

This private not-for-profit hospital specializes in the treatment of spinal cord injuries and is rated one of the top 10 rehabilitation hospitals by U.S. News & World Report. They gained that recognition through constant research and by pushing their treatments further than other hospitals. Take the case of one civil engineer from Forsyth.

He fell from a ladder in March of 2013 while cutting down a tree branch, and he suffered an injury to his back which left him paralyzed. He was taken to the Shepherd Center where he progressed from being an ICU patient to a day program outpatient. Now this former marathoner is taking advantage of one of the center’s most intense recovery programs.

It’s called Beyond Therapy, and the Shepherd Center describes the program as 50 times more intense than normal therapy. They work their patients like elite athletes, and this approach has helped around 400 patients push how far therapy can take their recovery. For this civil engineer from Forsyth, it has given him more hope for the future than he could have imagined.

The intensity of this program has proven that proper training and iron will can push patient recoveries further than modern medicine had previously thought. Unfortunately, this program is not covered by most insurances and is currently only a self-pay option. However, the Shepherd Center’s program seems to be effective, so hopefully it will be open to an even wider group of patients sometime in the future.