Do You Know Bill??

Movement for Hope and Healing

By: Rachel Cinquepalmi

      I was introduced to the Health and Wellness Lab and the benefits this lab provides, prior to visiting the “Lab” in person. As I was working at the front desk in the Kinesiology building, a man around the age of 70 by the name of Bill Bailey entered the office in a walker and introduced himself to me. A talkative man with a big personality and friendly persona, Bill informed me of his past as Tarleton State alumni and member of the Purple Poo. He spoke highly of all of his memories at Tarleton State and he proceeded to explain his reasoning for his return.

     On August 26, 2010, at eight in the morning, Bill was backing out of the driveway on his way to meet some friends for coffee. He sensed his right arm becoming completely numb as he lost control of the cigarette in his hand. Worried, he called 911 and was care-flighted from the hospital in downtown Stephenville to a hospital in Fort Worth where he remained in the Intensive Care Unit for seven days before returning to a nursing home in Stephenville. I watched Bill become somber as he remembered his time spent in a wheelchair. I was perturbed to hear the doctor’s report. Bill’s stroke had left him paralyzed, with no control over his right arm and right leg. According to the doctors, Bill would never walk again. Medicaid would stop providing financial assistance after three months and any therapy Bill received was essentially useless.

     In a seemingly hopeless situation, Bill found hope. Bill had remembered Dr. Joe Priest, and the work he had started in the “Lab”. Dr. Priest is currently a Professor in the Kinesiology Department at Tarleton State, and Director of the Health and Wellness Lab. He is working to help people like Bill each and every day by offering proper workout equipment and technology to individuals who do not have full control over their bodies, whether this is from an accident, a stroke, or other trauma.  Dr. Priest trains Tarleton State Kinesiology graduate students to assist in the lab and he requires that all of his undergraduate students in his Kinesiology class observe the work being done and record their findings.

     Bill’s goal for himself was to walk once again and gain control over his right arm. After only two and a half months of training with Dr. Priest, Bill was out of his wheelchair. He described how he works with a modified bicycle, resistance bands, balance boards, and other equipment and he explained how he progressed from walking again, to driving, to even gaining a limited amount of mobility in his right arm.

      “Dr. Priest’s lab is one of Texas’s best kept secrets,” Bill confidently stated. “I had a choice. I could have stayed home, got drunk and slept all day or I could choose to make something of myself and work.”

     And this is just what Bill has done. In the last year Bill has sold approximately 2.5 million dollars in real estate. In 2013, Bill was the Top Commercial Producer with a grand total of over $10 million dollars.

     Bill’s life is an example of the hope and healing that this lab offers. Bill’s story is the first in a series of articles that will introduce Dr. Priest’s clients and their individual stories. Year after year, the Lab works miracles and provides mental and physical hope for those people who have lost hope in themselves and have had others lose hope in them.