TODAY news - May 13, 2004

DynaVox gives patients ability to communicate again with help of speech-language therapists

Gaberial Hernandez wants to communicate. He hears and understands what goes on around him, and he tries his best to express himself. But after an automobile accident on January 2 left him in the intensive care unit for two months with a brain injury, the 16-year-old young man is trapped within his mind.

After three months of hospitalization, Gaberial was making wonderful progress. But his vocabulary was still limited to "yes" and "no" and "mom." Michelle Loewen, speech therapist, paid Gaberial a visit and helped open his world again.

Ms. Loewen brought with her the DynaVox MT4, an augmentative and alternative communication device that allows communication and sentence construction through a series of pictures and symbols. She set Gaberial up in his wheelchair and showed him the device and tested his ability to recognize the different shapes and pictures. After a 30- minute session, and finding out that Gaberial's favorite shows include "The Simpsons," "That 70's Show," and wrestling, Ms. Loewen is convinced Gaberial would benefit from the DynaVox MT4.

The DynaVox devices are one of several methods speech language pathologists use at Loma Linda University Medical Center and Children's Hospital to help patients with cognitive and physical disabilities communicate clearly.

Gary Lucas, senior speech pathologist of the LLUMC speechlanguage pathology department, coordinates monthly education sessions for nurses and speech therapists to keep up with the new advances in communication technologies. On April 13 he set up an all day session focusing on augmentative and alternative communication.

DynaVox representative Joshua Witt spent the day demonstrating and explaining the possible uses of the DynaVox devices like the MT4 that Gaberial uses. Mr. Witt performs this service free every other month at the Medical Center.

"It's so rewarding," says Mr. Witt. "It's awesome to see this technology used in an applicable process."

During the session Mr. Witt helped explain the 17 different communication fields, each containing hundreds of pages, to a group of speech therapists and parents interested in learning more about the augmentative communication options available.

"This provides an opportunity for us as speech therapists to learn about newer technologies," says Mr. Lucas.

Loma Linda University Medical Center salutes the department of speech-language pathology during the month of May, which is Better Hearing and Speech Month.

Photo (left): Theresa Pang, RN (left), works with Christy Pelton, RN, on the adult hematology/oncology unit on Ms. Pang's last day of her training at Loma Linda University Medical Center. Photo (right): Lexine Thall, RN (left); Jan Zumwalt, RN, MS, MBA (second from left), executive director of case management/ advanced practice nursing; and Margo Evers, RN (right), present a certificate of completion to Theresa Pang, RN, after her five-week internship learning about stem cell treatments.

Theresa Pang, RN, dedicated five weeks to learning the nursing process of stem cell treatments during her internship at Loma Linda University Medical Center. Ms. Pang, a visiting surgical and oncology nurse from Hong Kong Adventist Hospital, observed general nursing practices as well as specific technical procedures to gain knowledge of oncology and stem cell treatments.

"I hope I can improve the quality of nursing care in oncology, including the safe handling of chemotherapy," said Ms. Pang on her last day at the Medical Center, April 13. Besides observing and working alongside nurses on LLUMC's hematology/oncology unit, she attended continuing education classes. Now she says her main goal is to establish a stem cell unit in the Hong Kong hospital.

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Revised May 26, 2004
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