“We never know when someone we love will need help”. It’s not surprising that Megan McMullin feels that way since she was one of those people in desperate need of help a short time ago.

In January 2010, Megan was in a serious car accident that left her with a concussion, broken ribs, shoulder, hips, pelvis, and back, a lacerated spleen and liver, and a punctured lung. Within 45 minutes of her accident, she was in the Charles V. Keating Emergency and Trauma Centre at the QEII Health Sciences Centre. She spent three days in ICU before having surgery followed by three weeks in hospital and was then transferred to the Nova Scotia Rehabilitation Centre at the QEII to begin her long road to recovery.

Megan’s injuries turned her life upside down. At 34 years of age, she was working full time while studying for her early childhood education degree and planning a future with her boyfriend. Her focus had to shift towards re-learning how to do the simple things that she always took for granted, like sitting up on her own, bathing, and getting dressed.

Megan spent four months at the Rehabilitation Centre working through long, painful physiotherapy sessions. Although Megan is part of a rather large, supportive family, there were still lonely times for her.

“Looking back now, I really appreciate all the little things the phenomenal nurses did for me,” says Megan. “But the thing I remember the most was that the nurses made me feel like I had my mom around all the time.”

Today, Megan spends several hours a day at the gym and at the pool working on regaining her mobility. She is still an outpatient at the Rehabilitation Centre, visiting there at least once a month.

“All of the nurses and therapists at the centre became my surrogate family. They may forget me but I will never forget any of them. They gave me my life back," she says.

Photo: Megan McMullin on the day she was discharged from the Nova Scotia Rehabilitation Centre.