Each year, UAB Spain Rehabilitation Center (SRC) selects a patient, former patient, or a patient’s family member for its Ambassador of Hope Award, which recognizes courage and determination that inspire others facing the challenges of a disability. The recipient for 2025 is Sean Torbert of Phenix City, Ala.
In March 2025, Torbert was involved in an automobile accident that caused a severe spinal cord injury (SCI), leaving him partially paralyzed. He says the accident turned his world upside down.
“I will remember that moment also because it happened on my son’s birthday,” said Torbert, 30. “It was supposed to be a happy occasion, but everything changed. I lost most of my physical ability. I lost my job. I knew I was going to face a whole new life.”
A long process, then progress
Torbert received treatment for his injury and then began rehab at SRC in April 2025. He says that uncertainty about the process of healing and getting some use of his body back troubled him at first. But he knew that he needed to make the most of his stay. He credits the care team for “getting me through that long process.”
Torbert was discharged in July 2025 to continue rehab at home. He uses a wheelchair and a power chair. He’s made considerable progress, regaining more ability to move his left arm and getting some feeling back in his left leg.
“I’m just staying with the exercise, using the stationary bike, and lifting small weights,” Torbert said. “I can lift my leg and sense the muscles firing. I’m not always sure why sometimes, in terms of the physical changes, but I feel like I’m making progress.”
Clinicians who cared for Torbert at SRC have a slightly different take on his continuing SCI recovery. They say they know precisely why Torbert is doing well with his rehab.
“For someone whose entire life had radically changed, he greeted each day with excitement and curiosity,” said Cassandra Renfro, D.O., who was on Torbert’s inpatient care team.
“When I first met Sean, he was able to tell me detailed facts about his current condition and any progress he was making,” Dr. Renfro continued. “He was soon speaking the lingo of spinal injury and therapy. It takes patients with an SCI some time to learn their body again and be alert to signals. Sean was quicker than most to adapt to those changes. Overall, to say he’s a fast learner doesn’t do him justice. Sean was also very quick to begin engaging with our patients and making friends with others here at Spain.”
‘A light and a mentor’
SRC Certified Case Manager Jil Sea, MS, OTR/L, nominated Torbert for the Ambassador of Hope Award. She describes him as “a light and a mentor” who provided encouragement to others during his lengthy inpatient rehab stay at SRC.
“Sean did not meet a stranger while he was with us,” Sea said. “He offered other patients guidance and words of encouragement, regardless of the daily battles he faced himself. Sean attended every SCI education class at least two to three times before discharge, just so he could meet other patients on the floor. Near the end of his stay, our staff attempted to get him to teach a class. His reluctance to do so might be Sean’s one and only refusal of his entire inpatient stay.”
Sea says Torbert adapted quickly to the changes in his day-to-day activities, impressing staff and fellow patients alike.
“We were impressed by his receptivity to a catheter and bowel program, steering and managing a power wheelchair, using adaptive equipment, and managing strategies to direct his own care,” Sea said. “His sense of humor was contagious. Sean said he wanted to be the first patient at our new building or at least have a plaque with his name on it. Mainly, his continual hard work and dedication have inspired everyone around him.”
10 out of 10
It’s common practice for SRC staff to keep the recipient of the Ambassador of Hope Award in the dark until the day of the announcement. Torbert says he had no idea that he’d earned the recognition.
“They definitely surprised me,” Torbert said. “I’ve never received anything like that. It means so much to me. But, as with anyone who has a spinal cord injury or disability and needs to improve, being at Spain Rehab became the chance of a lifetime for me. The care team became my family, and I felt 100% cared for during that whole stay. I rate them 10 out of 10. I love them.”
As a Rehabilitation Innovation Center, UAB Spain Rehabilitation Center is designated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as a national leader in innovative care and research. It is the hub for UAB Medicine’s Traumatic Brain Injury and Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems and home to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center.