High school incident motivates her to help others

Dr. Raven West is director of outpatient rehabilitation services at Bay Area Rehabilitation Center.

“My 10th grade year in high school, a classmate was in football practice when he ran into a guy with his head down. He broke his neck. So he’s paralyzed from the neck down.

“At the time, I didn’t think the family pushed him hard enough. He wasn’t motivated enough to go through the therapy like he should have to be able to do more for himself. So it made me wonder, what could I do to help influence somebody to want to do more? What kind of motivational factors could I use to help someone want to push through not being able to walk, not being able to feel their legs, not being able to use the bathroom on their own?

“A lot of people are in pain when they come in here. They may have just had surgery, and I’m the one who is supposed to say, ‘Come on and let me push and pull on that knee and try to get that range of motion back.’ But I enjoy that. I enjoy people.

“I’ve always wanted to do something to help people. When I treat patients, I treat them like they’re my mom or my grandmother, and they know that. With that personal one-on-one approach, you’re able to get great results.”

— Dr. Raven West