Gales going through ‘intense’ therapy with goal of walking again

Devon Gales is harnessed up and connected to two battle ropes, pushing and pulling them during a tiring conditioning workout at the Shepherd Center.

His 45 seconds are up, and he bends to his knees in child’s pose. His head is on the floor, and his arms are extended, all while gasping for air.

"You OK?" one of his two trainers asked.

"Yeah," Gales said.

"OK, give me an explosive fly push-up – three, two one," the trainer said.

Pushing up on his knees, Devon does the push-up and begins to move the ropes again, grunting and looking as if he has no energy left.

A fellow Shepherd Center patient, middle-age and in a wheelchair, enters the gym and saw Gales pushing through the rigorous routine.

"Let’s go Devon, I know you ain’t tired," the man said.

"I’m not tired," Gales responded.

This intense, goal-oriented and supportive approach serves as the setting of Gales’ goal of walking again.

On Sept. 26, 2015, Gales entered Sanford Stadium as a Southern wide receiver. His life was changed forever when he collided with former Georgia place-kicker Marshall Morgan on a kickoff play. Gales suffered a spinal cord injury, which left him paralyzed from the waist down.

After surgery, Gales was admitted to the Shepherd Center, a rehabilitation hospital that is world-renowned for specializing in treating patients with spinal cord and brain injuries, for inpatient rehab.

Gales was placed in the inpatient rehabilitation program for nearly six months, and the focus was all about learning a new lifestyle and focusing on activities of daily living. He had success with those activities and his medical team felt he could return home.

After being discharged in February, he returned home to Baton Rouge, Louisiana for a short period of time. But Gales wasn’t able to get the kind of therapy at home like he did in Atlanta.

"I wanted to get back and get started (rehabbing) because I was just at home and wasn’t doing too much," Devon said. "I thought I might as well come here and get all the workouts in. I had a therapist I was going to. I went three times but I guess I was so used to Shepherd that it was just different. I didn’t go anymore. I was going to wait until I came back here. Then I was at home, doing nothing. Sitting outside and just rolling around in this chair."

Once he returned back to Atlanta just a month later, Gales began taking part in Beyond Therapy, a Shepherd Center program that works on meeting certain physical goals patients have.

"It is definitely intense," Devon said. "They’ve been working with me every day. I go for the two hours. I feel stronger, a lot stronger than I was when I came. They’ve made me lift a lot of weight, more than I used to."

Gales is working on minor movements while trying to gain feeling back in his lower extremities. A lot of that is accomplished with a machine known as the "Lokomat," which he spends time on twice per week.

The machine moves his legs for him and shows where he makes movements on his own. Gales said those minor cues have helped him in gaining the needed sensation.

"I feel a lot of pressure going down through my legs, my ankles and my feet," Gales said. "I don’t want to say I feel the bottom of my feet, but it is a different feeling from what I used to have. I’m still trying to concentrate to think left and right, but it’s getting better to where I really know."

Gales’ most recent feat was being able to move his legs at the hip. And while he hasn’t been able to make a great deal of progress in movement since, he celebrated the victory.

He believes it is just the start to gaining a range of movements.

"Just to say that it was moving, I was like, ‘Yes!’ " Gales said. "(I need) to have everything moving. Just to be able to get things back slowly. Once I progress through that, I’ll be able to do different things that come with it."

Gales, his stepmother, Tanisha, and his younger sister Teah currently reside in Atlanta as Devon continues rehab at the Shepherd Center. The plan is to stay in Atlanta for as long as Devon needs to be there.

Tanisha takes Gales to his workouts when they’re scheduled and has seen the work he’s put in. The resolve, which has inspired many, moves her daily.

"He knows he will walk again so he will never stop fighting," she said.

This story was originally published August 22, 2016 at 8:07 PM with the headline "Gales going through ‘intense’ therapy with goal of walking again."