News, Announcements, and Updates from
The Recovery Project

A transformative relationship, in many ways. When I first saw Charlie Parkhill, I had no idea he would become such an important figure in my life. I just thought I could help him. It was 1998 and I was working as a physical therapist (PT) at the Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan in the town of Novi. Charlie, a certified public accountant with a successful business, had sustained a severe neck injury while on vacation with his wife in Mexico. The wave that knocked him down had bruised and partially severed his spinal cord. Physicians had told him he’d never walk again.

Polly Swingle wondered nearly 20 years ago if cutting-edge physical therapy conducted on cats with spinal injuries that allowed them use of their hind legs would work on humans. It did. Working with her patient Charlie Parkhill, a businessman who had injured his spinal cord in a freak swimming accident in 1998, Swingle began to test her ideas in Detroit using high-intensity workouts.

Polly Swingle has practiced physical therapy for 30 years, and now she is getting something in return for giving back. The Muscular Dystrophy Association of Michigan recently selected her as the “Make a Muscle, Make a Difference” award recipient for 2015. The award is presented annually to a community member who dedicates time, talent and expertise to improve the quality of life for those with muscular dystrophy. Other professionals in MDA clinics nominate someone as the award’s recipient.

Charlie Parkhill talks with his hands. It’s remarkable, given that 17 years ago, an accident left him unable to move his body below his neck. Parkhill was a CPA with his own business when, in 1998, he went on vacation with his wife to Mexico. While he was coming out of the water, a giant wave hit him and knocked him onto his head, bruising and partially severing his spinal cord. The doctors told him physical therapy beyond the first year was a waste of time, that he would never walk again. But Parkhill was stubborn.

There’s hope for a cure for paralysis. Some American researchers believe epidural stimulation has the potential to be a quantum leap forward for the millions living with spinal cord injury (SCI). Whereas French researchers are confident in the ‘cyborg’ implant, a thin ribbon embedded with electrodes that lies along the spinal cord and delivers electrical impulses and drugs. For now there is The Recovery Project in Clinton Township and Livonia.

To say The Recovery Project comes from humble beginnings might be a bit of an understatement. The physical rehabilitation firm got its start in the Livonia YMCA with three people in 2003. Today the company employs 40 people between its home base in Livonia and satellite office in Macomb Township. It has hired five people over the last year, including physical therapist assistants and technicians.

By: JC Reindl   Charlie Parkhill of Bloomfield Hills is proud to run one of the most physically intensive training businesses in Michigan.   He

By: Gary Anglebrandt   The Recovery Project LLC was born out of adversity. Its founders met when one of them, Charles Parkhill, injured his spinal cord