High-tech pool helping rehab patients get back on their feet

Pools have been used as training and therapy tools for years. Now, a San Antonio rehabilitation hospital is using a high-tech pool to get patients back on their feet.

There is something therapeutic about being the water. It's buoyant and helps muscles and joints move more easily. That's important to 63-year-old Bill Rotkosky of Seguin who's recovering from a bicycle accident that left him with a broken neck.

"All I recall was just everything went white," Rotkosky remembered. "I had no pain. Nothing."

His prognosis was grim. He faced life in a wheelchair as a quadriplegic. But with faith and hard work, his fortunes are turning.

Rotkosky has spent the last ten weeks at the new in San Antonio, where his physical therapist is helping him through the long, slow healing process. A treadmill in the bottom of the pool allows him to practice walking, while cameras show the therapist a front view, and then a side view so she can critique his gait.

"By seeing it on the video screen, it's a crystal clear image," physical therapist Christina Modica-Salinas said. "I can correct his technique and his gait pattern."

Jets shoot out a wave of water to create resistance. What Rotkosky's body has learned in the water will help him on land. By the time they get out of the pool, patients say they know they've had a workout.

"You're doing all of your work," Rotkosky explained, "but the water's helping you. And you're still getting the benefits of the exercise, but you're getting support of the water."

Rotkosky has had to give up his goal of becoming a New Braunfels park ranger, but he feels blessed to be able to move his arms and legs and reclaim a normal life.

"It's amazing to stop and think where he started from," Modica-Salinas commented. "It's very humbling."

"I have been blessed," Rotkosky stated.

The Hydroworx pool is also used to help stroke victims, people with traumatic brain injuries and patients recovering from orthopedic surgeries.