Photos by BARRY WILLIAMS/ Special

Dugger works with Hurt during a therapy session. “What is most rewarding is just seeing the progress they make and for them to say thank you,” Dugger said.

When people ask physical therapist Cathi Dugger if she has any children, she answers, "about 20 a year." Dugger has worked on the adolescent spinal- cord injury team at Shepherd Center, a catastrophic care hospital in Atlanta, for seven years.

Her patients have been in car, sports or other accidents and have varying degrees of paralysis. About 90 percent must
use a wheelchair.

"It's our job to teach them how to live sitting down to the best of their ability," Dugger said.

The physical and occupational therapy is about the same for adult patients, but the approach is a bit different.

"You have to realize that these kids were going through a stage in their lives when they were seeking their independence,
and the accident put them back in a situation where they are dependent," Dugger said. "You have to remember
to treat them like any other teenager."

Dugger believes in using humor to break the ice.

"My OT partner [Amy Moore] and I will make fun of each other and ourselves, and they'll chime in. We play off everyone's personality," she said.

Humor's a great ice-breaker, but sometimes it takes a tough attitude to get patients to do the therapy. Dugger and Moore
take turns playing good cop/bad cop, with Dugger often taking the role of the tough cop.

"You feel empathy with them, but you can't feel sorry for them," she said. "You've got a job to do and that's to focus on
where they're going, not where they've been.

"They need so much physical help during therapy that you can't help but get close. We chat about sports, what's going on in
our lives [and] the world."

She keeps the radio tuned to hip-hop stations and watches MTV to keep up with who's who in pop culture. On Fridays, she
takes her patients to the movies and the mall.

"Our latest project is to pimp out a bus for our outings," Dugger said. Just like in the MTV show, "Pimp My Ride," the therapists and teens have chosen cool paint, extreme furnishings, a stereo system and TVs with video games for the bus.

"When it's finished, I'm taking some of my former patients to their high school prom and graduation," she said.

As part of Shepherd's unique back-to-school program, Dugger and her teammates give presentations on spinal cord injuries at her patients' high schools before they return to school.

"They can't fight all their own battles, and we can ease the transition, " she said. "Students see a wheelchair and think mentally
disabled. We explain that there's nothing wrong with their minds; it's their bodies that aren't working."

Dugger has traveled to 13 states to work with patients. She said that seeing her charges in their hometowns strengthens bonds.

"What is most rewarding is just seeing the progress they make and for them to say thank you," she said. "These are hardheaded teens, so sometimes the thanks come several years later, when they admit we were right."

Dugger wanted to work at Shepherd Center and accepted the job on the adolescent team because it was the only opening
at the time.

"Some days I go home exhausted, but I wouldn't come off this team now for anything," she said. "They'd have to kick
me off."