{"id":9611,"date":"2023-08-14T17:11:46","date_gmt":"2023-08-15T00:11:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/?page_id=9611"},"modified":"2025-04-21T14:01:16","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T21:01:16","slug":"patient-story-building-perseverance-together-samaritan-health-services","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/about-samaritan\/together\/patient-story-building-perseverance-together-samaritan-health-services\/","title":{"rendered":"Building Perseverance Together"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t

Building Perseverance Together – Kent Emry's story<\/h1>\n\t\t\t
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\u201cI wasn\u2019t about to accept this as a final outcome. I\u2019m a husband, father of seven kids, an entrepreneur and adventurer . . . my mobility is everything.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

~Kent Emry<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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Motorcyclist Defies Odds, Regains Adventurous Lifestyle<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery time I feel pain in my ankle \u2014 even if slight \u2014 it means I\u2019m alive and for that I am grateful,\u201d said Kent Emry, 54, of Eugene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was cruising down I-5 on my motorcycle, making my way home to celebrate my son\u2019s birthday. I even had a backpack full of gifts,\u201d said Emry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was June 12, 2018, and the day was extremely hot. \u201cI decided to remove my leathers, which I knew was against rider\u2019s rules. With only a little more travel ahead of me, I remember thinking, what could go wrong?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moments later, the back wheel of Emry\u2019s motorcycle locked up and it immediately skidded out from under him. With only his helmet and gloves to protect him, Emry went over the handlebars. His bike slid past him another 80 yards and burst into flames.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI remember feeling my body tumbling on the pavement and seeing the road rapidly moving beneath the facemask of my helmet \u2014 I was conscious the entire time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instinctively, Emry stood up when his body finally came to a stop. He quickly fell to the ground, and in that moment, he realized his left ankle was completely smashed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lying on the ground in pain, his body covered in wounds, all Emry could think about was his wife. The long-term implications of his injuries were an afterthought<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI needed to be the one to let her know what happened and that I was OK, before hearing the news from a first responder.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After his wounds were cared for, and surgery performed on his ankle, Emry\u2019s surgeon told him he would never walk again without a brace \u2014 that he needed to be prepared to live life differently.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cEvery time I feel pain in my ankle \u2014 even if slight \u2014 it means I\u2019m alive and for that I am grateful.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

~Kent Emry<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI wasn\u2019t about to accept this as a final outcome,\u201d said Emry. \u201cMy life is busy! I\u2019m a husband, father of seven kids, entrepreneur, adventurer with a passion for hiking, racing cars, flying planes and so much more \u2014 my mobility is everything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emry heard about oxygen therapy as a healing option from his brother who works in wound care at Samaritan. Less than a week after the motorcycle crash, he began hyperbaric oxygen therapy at Samaritan Wound, Vein & Hyperbaric – Albany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After 60 oxygen therapy treatments, and countless hours of other physical rehabilitation activities, Emry also attributes his recovery to maintaining positive attitude, doing what his medical care team told him and to his wife for her compassion and diligent care throughout.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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He\u2019s back to doing what he loves \u2014 spending time with family, running his businesses and being active.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy life may be adventurous, and oxygen therapy helped get me where I am today physically \u2014 but the fact that I am alive and able to continue on like I did before the accident is not lost on me,\u201d said Emry, as he reflected on his daughter\u2019s wedding day and being able to walk her down the aisle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even now, three years after the accident, Emry continues to challenge the physical strength of his ankle.\u201cI started training with a jiujitsu coach and surprised one of my sons when I actually knew what I was doing during our competition,\u201d said Emry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emry has also rebuilt the motorcycle involved in the crash and enjoys riding again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t about to let it win!\u201d<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe fact that I am alive and able to continue on like I did before the accident is not lost on me.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

~Kent Emry<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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\"Kent's
Kent\u2019s motorcycle after the accident.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A view of the hardware in Kent\u2019s ankle area after his accident.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A hyperbaric chamber at Samaritan Wound, Vein & Hyperbaric – Albany.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Kent's
Kent and his wife Julie work together to rehabilitate his ankle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Kent's
Kent\u2019s motorcycle went through its own rehabilitation after the accident.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Kent
Kent loves to hike and didn\u2019t want his injury to prevent doing the things he loves.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Kent
Kent and Julie enjoy flying.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A view from above on a recent flight.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Kent
Kent enjoys racing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Kent
Kent contemplating his recovery, \u201cThe fact that I am alive and able to continue on like I did before the accident is not lost on me.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Kent
Kent and Julie share a light moment.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Kent on his motorcycle, \u201cI wasn\u2019t about to let it win!\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n
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Pure Oxygen Helps Wounds Heal<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Most of the time, when you get a cut or scrape your body rushes to fight off infection and repair the damaged tissue. But for some people, the body struggles with the healing process and certain kinds of injuries or chronic, non-healing wounds become a problem. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy provides pure oxygen to a patient in a pressurized chamber and can give the body a jump-start to promote healing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Learn More About Oxygen Therapy<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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How Oxygen Therapy Works<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The air we breathe contains about 21% oxygen \u2013 plenty for healthy blood oxygen levels. During oxygen therapy, 100% oxygen is provided. Within the pressured chamber the oxygen molecules shrink, providing nearly 10 times more oxygen to the lungs and blood than normal. This oxygen influx improves how blood interacts with the damaged areas.  Treatments are usually two hours, five days a week for a total of 30 to 60 treatments.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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Motorcyclist Kent Emry defied the odds and regained his adventurous lifestyle after hyperbaric oxygen therapy helped him recover from a serious accident.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":10932,"parent":9577,"menu_order":11,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","_shs_workflow_notes":"","_shs_exclude_from_navigation":true,"_shs_promote_article_on_blogs":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-9611","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9611\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}