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A True Calling
Susan Marquez
wayne Jimenez says he may not be the
most conventional physical therapist,
but he tries to motivate his patients every
chance he gets. “I’ve worked in nursing homes,
in home health, in hospitals and in outpatient
clinics. It’s all the same. People
need help in being independent again, and
I help them get there with physical therapy.”
Physical therapy is a true calling for
Jimenez, who says he loves doing what he
does each day. “I was inspired by an incident
that happened with my father when I was
just ten years old,” Jimenez recalls. “He was
in a serious motor vehicle accident and broke
both of his legs. That’s back in the day of
hard plaster casts. I remember pushing him
around in a wheelchair, then helping him on
his walker, and finally watching him walk on
crutches before he could walk, unassisted,
again. He fully recovered. But I guess I never
recovered. I knew, at age ten, that I wanted
to help people walk again.”
Jimenez says his path was a straight line.
“I never deviated from what I wanted to do.”
Born in New Orleans, Jimenez grew up in
Houma, Louisiana. He fine-tuned his efforts
throughout school until he applied to, and
was accepted into, the physical therapy
program in the LSU med school. “I graduated
in 1979. In January, I’ll mark my 40th year as
a physical therapist.”
When asked what he likes most about his
work, Jimenez says that it’s the results he
sees in patients, often starting before they
have surgery. “Take someone who has a
total knee replacement. Before surgery, they
are usually in a lot of pain, and they often
need to use a walker or cane to be mobile.
By the time they are discharged from my
care, their mobility has been restored, with
no ambulatory aids needed. And more
importantly, their independence has been
restored. That’s a very satisfying thing to see.”
52 • January 2019