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.

The UAB Amputee Clinic at Spain Rehabilitation Center is now the first clinic in Alabama, and one of few nationwide, to offer 3D-printed sockets for prostheses.

Being able to drive means freedom for many people, but that ability may be limited after certain injuries or medical conditions. The Driving and Community Mobility Program at UAB Spain Rehabilitation Center was created to address this. For patients affected by physical, sensory, or mental processing impairments, the program can improve their quality of life by helping them safely regain as much independence as possible.

The Post-Rehab Transitions Program (PRTP) began in January 2025 at UAB Spain Rehabilitation Center. Funded through UAB’s Forging Ahead strategic investment initiative, the program extends outpatient rehab care to those who’ve been discharged from Spain Rehabilitation Center (SRC) following a traumatic spinal cord injury.

In early 2024, Wayne Jones was driving his truck home from a friend’s retirement party. What seemed like a moment later, he woke up in a hospital bed, woozy and questioning reality. He couldn’t move his legs and didn’t know where he was.

With sweeping views, cutting-edge therapy gyms and 134 patient beds, the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s new $156.7 million inpatient rehabilitation pavilion promises to transform recovery for Alabamians and patients across the region.

The UAB Rehabilitation Pavilion is a state-of-the-art inpatient rehabilitation hospital that includes Spain Rehabilitation Center inpatient rehabilitation services. The 11-story building includes 78 rehabilitation beds and the most advanced technology – all designed to promote functional activity at every turn. The facility enhances our focus on neurorehabilitation for patients with stroke, brain injury, spinal cord injury, and other conditions. […]

Each year, UAB Spain Rehabilitation Center (SRC) selects a patient, former patient, or their family member for its Ambassador of Hope Award. This special honor goes to an individual with a disability or their family member whose courage and determination inspire hope in others facing the challenges of disability. UAB Medicine employee Darryl Walker is the 2024 recipient of the award.

Each year, hundreds of patients visit the Amputee Clinic at UAB Spain Rehabilitation Center to be fit for prostheses after complications of diabetes, motor vehicle accidents and a wide range of other conditions. A new grant from UAB’s Health Services Foundation-General Endowment Fund awards program is funding the purchase of an advanced 3D printer that will allow those patients to receive their prostheses faster, at lower cost and with an even better fit, says the clinic’s director, Conley Carr, M.D. The printer will also produce custom orthoses for UAB patients needing braces after a stroke or other condition, he adds.

People who’ve had a stroke often need physical therapy as part of their recovery. Though most are age 65 or older, high-intensity gait training can be the fastest way for these patients to regain their ability to walk.

Topgun, a male Golden Retriever who is trained and certified as a facility dog, recently joined the staff at UAB Spain Rehabilitation Center (Spain Rehab). He’s now there each day assisting his partner and best friend, Recreational Therapist Emily Rider, in helping patients in their recovery and in therapy sessions. In the Q&A session below, Topgun – with a little help from Emily – shares some experiences and explains his new role as a facility dog.