Mike’s Story: Back Up the Ladder, Thanks To Healthy Heroes

Mike Muhl: Being able to get into a program that concentrated on mobility and concentrated on flexibility and taught me how to deal with that and gave me other options improved the general quality of life, so I can spend that time with my family. I can do the activities that I like to do, as well as perform better at my job.

I had been dealing with a very bad knee that needs replaced for years, and it was getting to the point where I had to either do something to improve my quality of life or have the surgery, which I didn't want to do just yet. Healthy Heroes is a program that allows the Huber Heights Fire Division access to an athletic trainer that's dedicated to work with our personnel two to three times a week. They have the ability to make personal appointments to discuss issues with them on a personal level, and actually have a health program that's prescribed to them by someone with that advanced level of training.

Brett: Mike Muhl is the battalion chief for Huber Heights Fire Division. I've been working with him for about two years. He was referred to me because he was having a lot of trouble with his arthritic knees. He was having some back issues, and some overall just quality of life.

Mike Muhl: With reduced mobility in your knee, it affected everything about my job. I had a hard time climbing ladders and having the flexibility in the knee to climb a ladder. It was difficult to get into some of the vehicles. I had problems kneeling down on the ground, which is a large portion of everything we do in the fire service is staying low and being able to crawl and maneuver.

Brett: Mike has some advanced arthritis in his knees. We've put together corrective exercise strategies so that we're trying to take pressure off of his knees. We use exercises so that we strengthen certain components like his glutes, for example, so that we can not be putting pressure on the knees. Then we help me modify his activities.

Mike Muhl: I'd already been involved with the Healthy Heroes program for the flexibility and mobility issues in my knee, and I was involved in a training with our federal urban search and rescue task force. During that training, a piece of concrete became dislodged and crushed my leg and trapped me underneath it for several minutes. The day after I received the injury, I made a phone call to Brett at Healthy Heroes and informed them what had happened, and he immediately got involved to help to speed along my recovery process.

Brett: So one evening I got a call from Mike, and he told me that he had been injured during training at work, and that a 2,000 pound concrete block have fallen on his leg and he was injured. He'd gone to the emergency room and been released. Through our conversations we made a decision, and the next morning I was able to get in touch with Dr. Jerele, and we were able to basically get him in for a followup. Dr. Jerele is not only an orthopedic surgeon, but she is also specializes in trauma, so it like the perfect person for him to see in this case.

Dr. Jerele: When Mike came in, evaluating his wound, it was pretty much the entire portion of his lower leg had a large abrasion or a scrape on it with some drainage from that, just from the amount of swelling that he had. The swelling was probably the biggest limiting factor in his recovery.

Mike Muhl: Firefighters in general work with injuries all the time, and we compensate for them. That leads to more injuries and more time off, so by getting healthy and having that injury attended to immediately by dealing with it with our athletic trainer, we are then able to correct it instead of compensate for it.

Dr. Jerele: A big part of Mike's recovery was then the physical therapy and training that he got after his injury once he was recovered. We're really fortunate here in Premiere that we have a program called Healthy Heroes that really gears towards our firefighter staff. We know how important they are to our community, and just gets them back on their feet, helps them maintain healthy lifestyles, and just is a great resource for our firefighter community.

Brett: I think his ability to get in contact with me and for us to get him seen quickly benefited him significantly, but being able to get it identified quickly and then taken care of, I think, really helped with his overall outlook.

Mike Muhl: Brett and I have developed a very good relationship on a personal level. He's very, very well-educated in many facets of overall generalized health. We enjoy talking sports. We enjoy talking about all of the fun things that go on in life, but when we get down to my personal level of health, he has just a wealth of knowledge that I can tap into about nutrition and exercise.

Brett: My biggest goal for Mike is to be able to go through his life as pain-free as possible and to function as efficiently as possible. We know that there is some damage going on in the knees, and we know that there's going to be some surgery probably involved in the future. We're trying to put that off as long as we can and help him have the healthiest and happiest life that's possible.

Mike Muhl: My personal benefits from participating in the Healthy Heroes program has been the generally improved quality of life. When we are off and away from our job, there are things that I wouldn't be able to do with my family. It's just a testimony that that recovery process was really, really well-thought out and well-executed.