Life 2.0

On August 9, 2022, 24-year-old alpine climber Ben Eder awoke to a feeling of excitement at 3 am in his camp at Grand Teton National Park, knowing he’d soon embark on what’s known as the Grand Traverse. This cloud-skimming route weaves across the park’s 10 major summits, spanning roughly 17.9 miles and including a cumulative elevation gain of about 12,000 feet and difficulties with Yosemite Decimal System ratings of up to 5.8. The estimated time required to complete the ascension? Between one and three days.

That day, Eder and his climbing partner were about five hours into their trek, on a scrambling section between Mount Teewinot and Mount Owen, when Eder slipped and tumbled head over heels down nearly 400 feet of rocky terrain. Since they were on a less technical segment of the route, Eder and his friend intentionally chose not to rope up. But they were also in an area deemed a no-fall zone, meaning that one misstep would most certainly result in catastrophe.

Approximately 26 days later, Eder emerged from a coma and into a new reality. His back was broken, along with both of his wrists, and he had sustained a severe traumatic brain injury. Beyond the bandages and the physical pain, Eder struggled most to reconcile what had happened to him in the intervening weeks. Try as he might, he could not conjure in his mind the harrowing rescue from the side of the mountain where his broken body lay, or being flown to a trauma center in Idaho where doctors worked to stabilize him, or the transport to Utah where he’d begin a long journey to becoming whole.

Eder opened his eyes in a bed at the Craig H. Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital at the University of Utah, the Mountain West’s preeminent destination for patients recovering from and adjusting to life-altering injuries and conditions. At Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital, patients are treated by a world-renowned team of physicians and clinicians in a state-of-the-art facility: Each floor features the most innovative technology in rehabilitative care. For example, the hospital’s Digital Innovation Lab brings together clinicians, researchers, and engineers from across academic disciplines to develop new technologies alongside and with patients in real time. The mobility garage is unique to the hospital and serves as a practice space for patients to test adaptive devices like off-road wheelchairs and hand-powered bicycles. The advanced therapy gym on the hospital’s first and second floor is awash in natural light and supports the therapeutic protocols of the physical, occupational, and speech therapy teams.

Perhaps most important, the Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital infuses every corner of the building and its surroundings with the healing power of nature. Nestled against the foothills of the Wasatch mountains with sweeping views of the Salt Lake Valley, the Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital provides a safe, restorative place for patients and their loved ones to envision life after their stay. 

For Eder, the hospital’s proximity to nature proved to be pivotal in his recovery. From tackling rehabilitation exercises on the outdoor therapy terrace to eventually hiking in the hills above Red Butte Garden, Eder was able to maintain his strong connection to nature throughout his time at Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital.

When he first arrived, however, Eder was in what’s referred to as a minimally conscious state. Derrick Allred (MD ’11), director of Brain Injury Rehabilitation at Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital, met with Eder’s family and discussed the hospital’s Disorders of Consciousness program—a niche treatment program that utilizes drug interventions and diverse therapies to help restore brain function in patients.

The process of restoring Eder to consciousness began with providers interviewing Eder’s loved ones about his strengths, weaknesses, motivations, and hobbies. His care team then used this information to create an environmental stimulation plan to promote neurologic recovery in Eder’s brain. “In addition to the best rehabilitation and medical practices, we optimized Eder’s environment with familiar sights and sounds to promote the most robust neurorecovery possible,” Allred said.

For Eder, waking from his coma was like nothing he saw in the movies, where patients would blink open their eyes and have a sudden understanding of where they were and how they got there. Instead, he recalls this period as one marked by a deep sense of confusion, agitation, and fear.

People have to convince you that you’re safe because how do you go from one place to another place and have no memory of it?” he explained. “Suddenly you’re 30 pounds lighter than you were, both your wrists are wrapped up in splints, and your back hurts. How do you reconcile that with the fact that you fell asleep one day somewhere and you woke up somewhere else months later?”

With Eder fully awake, it was clear that the severity of his brain injury was impacting his short-term memory, cognition, and ability to speak. But he had also sustained massive musculoskeletal injuries that needed time and intensive therapy to heal. In his role, Allred was responsible for assembling a multidisciplinary team of caregivers to design a treatment plan tailored to Eder’s specific recovery needs. 

“We are literally in the trenches with patients for several hours a day, managing their medical issues and teaching them how to become functional again,” Allred said. “That not only requires time, but it also requires that patients develop relationships with their care provider team, which includes physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, and specialized nurses who are there and get to know them as people—their wants, their desires, and their goals.”

One of these providers is physical therapist Shannon Wells.

When she first started working with Eder, Wells had to recruit two to three additional therapists to initiate all of his movements, whether that be sitting him up, helping him stand, or advancing his legs to walk. As his mobility improved, Wells witnessed Eder engage more fully in his treatment and with his care providers, watching him bond with the hospital’s therapy dog and tying climbing knots with his occupational therapist.

“People have to convince you that you’re safe, because how do you go from one place to another place and have no memory of it?”

“All of our research for therapy intervention says that if we’re doing tasks that are important or salient for our patients, they’re going to get a better, faster recovery from that,” she explained. “We really try to get to know our patients as people and work from that angle to tailor their rehab goals and activities toward what’s meaningful to them.”

Eder’s recovery was a slow, arduous process made more complicated by his post traumatic amnesia. But over the course of a few weeks, the trust between Eder and his therapy team deepened, and glimpses of his can-do personality began to flicker on. Near the end of his stay, Eder recalls a turning point in his therapy when he was able to jog alongside Wells.

“I think that was the moment for me that stands out as the glass is broken, the ceiling is broken, the sky’s the limit,” he said. “If I can walk, I can run. If I can run, I can jump. If I can jump, I can move. If I can move, I can function.”

Wells remembers this moment—and the satisfaction she felt in seeing a young, motivated person reconnecting with his body and mind through movement—well.

“He’s very analytical, he’s super goal-driven, he’s got a good sense of humor,” Wells said. “That’s the fun part of rehab: when you see people coming back to what you assume is their previous personality and be able to engage—to really start to push themselves—in therapy.”

“That’s the fun part of rehab: when you see people coming back to what you assume is their previous personality and be able to engage—to really start to push themselves—in therapy.”

And push himself he did. After 56 days in the Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital, Eder was released and dove straight into a robust outpatient program at the hospital to continue building his physical strength and stamina. Weeks in the ICU had whittled away his body mass, and his brain injury made him unable to feel sensation below his right knee.

But in December 2022, Eder received the unwelcome news that he’d require a second surgery on his wrist, which dashed his hope of an immediate return to climbing.

“I remember thinking, ‘What am I going to do? What am I going to fill my time with?’” he added.

When he reflects on this moment, however, Eder realizes that it gave him the time and space to examine his life and future goals. Had his wrists not been compromised, he would have likely resumed climbing without considering alternate paths. As it was, he had time to fill and legs that worked, so Eder set a new goal for himself: to run the Salt Lake City Marathon in April 2023.

Over the course of the winter, he intensified his training, running four to five days a week, and he adopted a new diet to help him gain weight and build muscle mass. Eder dug deep within himself to employ the skills he honed as an endurance climber and set an audacious goal to run the marathon in under four hours. On race day, he employed the help of two friends who helped pace him the whole way. Other friends flanked the course and held up signs of encouragement. Perhaps most meaningfully, Eder’s care team at Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital showed up to cheer him on, and they even had T-shirts made for all of his supporters to wear. Three of his therapists, including Wells, ran a portion of the race with him.

“There was a lot of support surrounding the marathon,” he said. “I would say that it was more like a familial friendship bond. They weren’t there as clinicians; they were there as my friends.”

In the end, Eder finished just shy of his goal, running the marathon in four hours and three minutes. Through this experience, he realized how much perspective he had gained by working his way back to life. 

“I think that this life experience has made me so aware and appreciative of every different aspect of my life that I wouldn’t give it up,” he said. “And I would say that a large portion of that is attributed to my friends, family, and care team.”

Today, Eder is a student at the University of Utah pursuing a degree in architecture, and he works for Architectural Nexus, a Salt Lake City-based design firm. He also volunteers with the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Team, helping people in circumstances not dissimilar to his own in the Tetons. Since his accident, Eder has run four marathons with no plans of stopping.

“I think that this life experience has made me so aware and appreciative of every different aspect of my life that I wouldn’t give it up.”

“I’m great. I’m functional. I’m so functional, in fact, that I am in school full time, and I work,” he said. “I credit a lot of that to the care that was provided to me by the staff at Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital and the support that my family provided. I think through hard work and dedication, we can achieve anything.”

Reimagining What’s Possible

For Dr. Derrick Allred, Utah has always been home. Growing up in the southern part of the state, he moved to Salt Lake City to pursue both his undergraduate and medical degrees at the University of Utah. After graduation, Allred completed his residency in physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, where he ultimately served as its residency program director. 

In 2022, Allred was offered the unique opportunity to lead the Brain Injury Rehabilitation program at the Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital. Not only did this position mean he would return to the place he loved, but it afforded him the chance to work at one of the most advanced rehabilitation facilities in the nation. Having worked in other rehabilitation centers, including a Veterans Affairs community hospital, Allred feels humbled by the state-of-the-art resources available to him and his patients at NRH.

“This hospital by far has the most administrative support and the most opportunity for technological, programmatic, and diagnostic advances with the brain injury population,” he said. “That dovetails into what I hope to achieve over the short and long term: to expand rehabilitation services for those who have sustained severe brain injuries acutely, but most importantly, getting them back to a high quality of life.”

One of the key factors that attracted Allred to NRH was the promise that he could establish the Disorders of Consciousness program, which combines a blend of drug interventions and therapeutic techniques to restore brain injury patients to a conscious state. Patients in this program lack the ability to meaningfully interact with their environment, family, friends, and medical providers, which poses a unique challenge for those in charge of their immediate care. Only a handful of such programs exist in the United States, with precious few located in large academic medical centers like University of Utah Health.

“There aren’t many rehabilitation hospitals that deal with this population due to their medical, functional, and cognitive complexities,” Allred said.

In 2022 alone, the Brain Injury Rehabilitation team treated 232 patients who received, on average, nearly four hours of therapeutic intervention per day. All brain injury patients at Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital receive individualized care, which evolve in real time based on the trajectory of their recovery and goals for life once they’re released. In Allred’s view, this level of personalized care, combined with the dedicated staff, advanced technology, and comprehensive support, is what sets the Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital apart.

“First and foremost, this place is attached to a wonderful academic center where we have every medical specialty at our disposal,” he said. “We have very good relationships with some of the best and brightest minds in all of medicine who are here not only to practice medicine, but to advance medicine, which is one of the main aims of what we do at the University of Utah.”

Transforming Rehabilitative Care

In 2020, the Craig H. Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital opened its doors to patients, transforming the University of Utah into the foremost destination for rehabilitative care in the Mountain West. This 172,000-squarefoothospital features 75 patient beds and some of the most advanced rehabilitation facilities in the nation for people suffering from life-altering conditions, including stroke, traumatic brain injury, and neck and spinal cord injuries.

Patients at the Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital have access to a wide array of state-of-the-art services and technologies:

• Outdoor therapy terrace and garden to promote mental well-being and physical independence

• Physical and occupational therapy gym featuring an advanced zero-gravity track to help patients walk again

• Smart-technology patient rooms that are fully customizable to individual needs

• Mobility garage—the only one of its kind in the nation— to help people learn how to use a wide range of mobility devices, including cars, off-road wheel chairs, and hand-powered bicycles

• Digital innovation lab where scientists and engineers work to improve robotic and prosthetic technologies

This world-class facility was made possible by a 47.5 million dollar donation by The Craig H. Neilsen Foundation, the largest private funder of spinal cord injury research, rehabilitation, clinical training, and programmatic support in the United States and Canada. The foundation was established in 2002 by American hospitality entrepreneur and

University of Utah alum Craig H. Neilsen (MBA ’64, JD ’67), who suffered a catastrophic spinal cord injury after a collision with a semi-truck in 1985. Neilsen passed away in 2006, but his philanthropic vision to improve the lives of those affected with spinal cord injuries continues through the work of his foundation.