Legacy lives on

The inaugural doctor of physical therapy program in the state of Arkansas on Tuesday welcomed its first cohort of 24 students, who will begin the three-year program in August at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Northwest Campus in Fayetteville.

The newly created program will be unique in a number of ways, according to John Jefferson, physical therapy department chairman. Typical physical therapy programs begin with two years of instruction, followed by two years of internships. The UAMS Northwest program will have each of three years of course work followed by internships. Students will learn through a "flipped classroom." Lectures will be delivered online at home, and homework will be done in campus classrooms with instructors and classmates. An on-campus physical therapy clinic and partnership with the Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks will give students exposure to patients as soon as the second week of their program.

The welcome and dedication ceremony at the school also provided Lewis Epley the opportunity to say a long overdue 'thank you' to Corrine Wulkan Larson, the physical therapist who helped set the course for his life.

CHANGING PLANS

Epley began his senior year at Springdale High School in September 1953 with very definite plans for his future. They included attending the University of Arkansas, playing in the Razorback marching band and going to UA law school. Those plans did not include polio.

There were 324 cases of poliomyelitis in Arkansas in 1953, and Epley was diagnosed as one of them one week into his senior year and two years before the Salk vaccine was approved.

After being treated at home and at Springdale Memorial Hospital for a few weeks, Epley and his parents received word that a bed was available for him at the Children's Convalescent Center in Jacksonville. The 75-bed center, housed in the former Arkansas Ordnance Plant hospital, treated polio patients during the disease's epidemic years and was "a catch-basin for kids in need of physical therapy," Epley says.

Epley says when he arrived in Jacksonville on Oct. 4, "I was not prepared for what I was going to see. Seventy-three or 74 other kids, some in baby beds, others 7, 8, 9, 10 years old." At 17, he was the eldest, with the next oldest a 15-year-old girl named Irene. "Everywhere I looked, there was someone with something wrong with them."

He went in thinking he would "be there a few days, learn some exercises and go home to rejoin my senior class." He quickly learned otherwise.

He was told he would be there an "indefinite, undetermined amount of time," that was to begin with two weeks of bed rest. Then he would begin using a wheelchair.

"I was 200 miles from home -- not a positive place to be in." When he found out the length of his stay was undefined, he slipped in to "poor Lewis, poor me, what did I do to deserve this?"and was uncooperative about doing his physical therapy.

Corrine Wulkan, a first-year physical therapist at the University of Minnesota, had accepted emergency polio duty at the Children's Convalescent Center at the request of the March of Dimes.

He remembers that Wulkan came to talk with him one evening. "I can only describe it as she dressed me down like a Marine drill sergeant would a new recruit."

Wulkan told him he had the potential to get more benefit out of physical therapy than many who were there. Not only that, she added, as the eldest one there, the younger children were watching him, so he needed to be a role model, as well as a cheerleader and source of encouragement.

Epley says she finished with suggesting that if he did not want help, perhaps he should "pack up, go home and free up the bed for someone who would take advantage of the opportunity for help."

He says he didn't sleep much that night and had concluded by morning she wouldn't have talked to him that way if she didn't care.

Lewis took the talking-to and responsibility to heart -- participating in therapy and becoming a role model and cheerleader for the younger children, visiting both sides of the segregated hospital. He was so encouraging that the children wanted to share their achievements with him.

When a 10-year-old African-American boy, nicknamed Jack of Diamonds, was first outfitted with leg braces and therapists wanted him to walk with the parallel bars, he refused -- until someone brought Lewis so he could see him walk for the first time since becoming ill.

Epley made enough progress in seven weeks that once his parents had come for several days and his mother was trained in his required daily exercises, he was back home in Springdale in time for Christmas.

Epley graduated with his class and earned bachelor and juris doctor degrees from UA and was the "Voice" of the Razorback Band.

Upon graduation, he moved to Eureka Springs and began building his law practice.

CHANGING COMMUNITY

Epley is a former chairman of the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees and has served on several corporate, education, nonprofit organization and banking boards through the years. He's spent spent more than 50 years supporting health care and health care facilities in Northwest Arkansas, serves on the UAMS Foundation Fund Board and is a founding member of the UAMS Northwest Campus Advisory Board.

While attending a family graduation celebration three years ago, he learned of a UA graduate who was having to leave the state for a physical therapy graduate program not available in Arkansas. Disappointed that an Arkansas school didn't offer that, Epley did some research into the need for physical therapy and education and started making calls to UAMS administration.

"Lewis has been our biggest cheerleader" getting the new program started, Jefferson says. "He's been a tremendous supporter. As a recipient, he's someone who has seen first-hand how important a physical therapist is as a member of a health care team."

REUNION

Epley says one of his regrets has been that he didn't stay in touch with anyone at Jacksonville. "Jacksonville was in the rear-view mirror, and I was only looking forward to getting back to my high school."

Years later, "it finally dawned on me how much Corrine had done for me." He made many attempts over the years to find her but could not. "I wanted to thank her, maybe do something nice for her."

Epley shared with Dina Wood, UAMS Northwest Arkansas Region senior director of development, his experience in Jacksonville and attempts to contact Wulkan.

Wood was able to track down a phone number and Wulkan -- now Corrine Larson -- and Epley spoke for the first time several weeks ago. Epley told her the effect her words and work had on him and invited her for Tuesday's dedication.

Larson, now retired in Coral Gables, Fla., says her brief time in Jacksonville in a culture that included working in a segregated hospital, shaped her career, leading her to become a public health physical therapist. She says her experience was "profound and wonderful -- totally changed my career path as a result of the time in Arkansas." Larson's career also included clinical practice and program development. "The field never disappointed me. There was always growth and encouragement."

Of the prospect of coming back to Arkansas this week, she said: "When in life do you get the opportunity to learn the impact you made on someone's life? This wonderful young man grew in to a wonderful community-minded model for others."

Carin Schoppmeyer can be reached by email at [email protected].

NAN Our Town on 06/11/2015