Strength for the journey

Remembering Ellen King, BSOT, OTR/L, CHT, certified hand therapist at Milliken Hand Rehabilitation Center

by Cia Passig Carpenter, MS, OTR/L, CHT• December 20, 2024

Ellen King, BSOT, OTR/L, CHT (left), moves Chrisanna Jung's shoulder joint using a passive range of motion. Jung was a patient in the Breast Cancer Program.

Ellen King, BSOT, OTR/L, CHT, 62, passed away on April 13, 2024, of breast cancer. She worked as a certified hand therapist for 16 years at WashU Medicine Milliken Hand Rehabilitation Center. Her longtime friend and colleague, Cia Passig Carpenter, MS, OTR/L, CHT, reflects on Ellen’s life, career and the countless lives she touched.

I met Ellen King in 2003 when I moved back to St. Louis to help my parents. We met at PRORehab outpatient physical therapy clinics. We did not work at the same clinic, but soon after I started, Ellen graciously invited two other therapists and me to her daughter's wedding. I noticed that several former patients were there also. I learned immediately that once you were in Ellen’s circle – you were family.

That’s what stood out to me about Ellen. She was outgoing and friendly, but it was more than that. She made everyone feel as if they mattered in this world. People knew she was genuine about what she was saying and doing for them. For example, we had a middle-aged complex patient – he had lost the use of one hand due to a stroke years before, and the other had been injured in a recent car accident. He had trouble with dressing tasks. Ellen bought him athletic shoes he could slip on with her own money. She thought nothing of it; Ellen didn’t feel like she was doing anything “extra.” It was just what she did to help someone.

We waited and walked in and out of work every day together, but if anybody she knew was in the hospital, Ellen stopped by after her 10-hour day to see how they were doing. She would meet up with family, friends, former colleagues and patients whenever she could. Ellen made you feel like you were an important part of her life, so she showed up for yours. She would remember if you told her about a loved one in need and would inquire how they were doing. This even happened three days before she died. I was sitting at her bedside, and she was sleeping. She woke up, looked up at me and asked me how my sister’s surgery went the day before. Somehow, amid everything Ellen was going through, she was thinking about my sister.

That was Ellen.

The therapist

Family was everything to Ellen. She was married for 40 years to her beloved husband, Mike, and had three children, Kate, Elena and Matthew, eight grandchildren, and parents. For those same four decades, she was a dedicated hand therapist who worked with children and adults with congenital, traumatic and degenerative conditions of the upper limb.

Before PRORehab, Ellen worked various rehabilitation jobs around St. Louis, including at Barnes-Jewish Hospital with Dr. David Brown. I arrived at Milliken in December 2007, and Ellen joined me six months later in 2008. The rest, as they say, was history.

There is no way for me to recall the countless patients Ellen saw during her 16 years at Milliken and assisting Dr. Martin Boyer in his hand clinic. Each patient has their special memories of Ellen. Her former patients now see me or other Milliken therapists to continue their treatments. There are various reminders of Ellen in the clinic – in our office are a picture of her and a special photo of various wrist braces in honor of “Baby Kenny,” a child born with right arm ischemia whom Ellen and Stacy Baker, MOT, OTR/L, CHT, treated from 5 weeks to 7 years old, that hangs on the wall. Ellen’s family had shirts made with “Strength for the Journey,” her mantra during her cancer journey, which we bought and often wear to work, and many got tattoos with the saying. Beyond the visual reminders, Ellen left us with her years of clinical expertise and reasoning. When presented with a challenging diagnosis or case, we ask ourselves – and each other – What would Ellen do?

In addition to working at Milliken several days a week, Ellen worked part-time at Shriners Children’s St. Louis Hospital for 12 years in their outpatient hand clinic with Dr. Charles Goldfarb and Dr. Lindley Wall. Ellen developed immediate, effortless connections with children and their families. She would participate in Shriners’ summer Hand Camp, a weekend retreat for children ages 6 to 12 with hand or upper limb differences and their families. Many Milliken colleagues joined Ellen each year in volunteering for the camp, including Stacy, who recalled the impact Ellen had on campers as a group leader:

In this role, she spent countless hours assisting patients born with hand differences and their families through archery, horseback riding, rope climbing and fishing. Ellen showed so much compassion to the kids, who were eager to open up and gain confidence in their differences. She eventually took over coordinating the Junior Counselor portion of the camp. This was where she shined. Teens and adolescents seemed to flock toward her personality. Ellen was able to connect with this group in ways others were not. She led these teens to be role models and examples to the new campers. Ellen changed the lives of everyone who attended this camp.

The teacher

Ellen was the first to say yes to having a student, whether it be an informal observation or a 12-week fieldwork commitment. She also took time after her 10-hour shift to teach a class with me for WashU students, “Independent Study of Hand Therapy,” which included splinting, wound care modalities, and diagnosis education. She loved sharing her passion for hand therapy with the next generation. My colleague Tim Pemberton, MSOT, OTR/L, CHT, was mentored by Ellen:

Ellen’s love for treating and caring for patients was matched by her passion and commitment to mentoring students and new hand therapists. As a new grad and new employee at Milliken, Ellen took every opportunity to make me a more knowledgeable and skilled therapist. Every time I felt anxious about my ability to take on new challenges, Ellen was there to build my confidence. When I earned my certification in hand therapy, she was the first to congratulate me. Ellen has played a huge role in advancing my career as a hand therapist. My patients and I both continue to benefit daily from Ellen's amazing ability to teach and her genuine love for helping others. I am forever grateful for her commitment to teaching and mentorship.

Logan Pewitt, OTD, OTR/L, CHT, shares this sentiment:

Ellen was a wonderful mentor. As a student, she was great at teaching material in an approachable way. Though she had high expectations for me as a student (and all students), she had so much patience to help me to truly learn the material. She taught me so many tricks for orthosis fabrication and how to approach all patients with openness and kindness.  As a new therapist at Milliken, I learned from Ellen every day in the clinic. She once again had so much patience with me as I was learning different diagnoses and interventions, but always was willing to answer any questions. She was my sounding board, and I knew that she believed in me.  Ellen was a wonderful teacher and mentor, and I am the clinician I am today partly due to the influence she had on me as a new therapist.

Ellen never treated students like a passive observer. She made the teaching opportunity her priority and offered the students the richest experiences possible. Ellen often pushed students to be more hands-on than they wanted and had no qualms telling them – You cannot be shy in here. You have to show this patient that you are in charge and that you’re here for them.

It was important to Ellen that her students understood that they were not just the patient’s therapist, but also their advocate and voice. That was why she went above and beyond in her practice to connect her patients with community resources and services when she knew they needed extra support.

In fact, it was a gap in breast cancer services that led Ellen to co-develop the service line that would become her legacy.

The King Method

In 2017, Ellen co-developed a breast cancer program to help women prepare for and recover from breast reconstruction, chemotherapy and radiation. It started when Ellen and colleague Katie McQueen, OTD, OTR/L, CHT, treated a patient with a broken wrist. During her evaluation, they asked her to move her shoulder, and she couldn’t. Ellen and Katie learned about her breast cancer journey and reconstructive surgeries. The woman was just happy to be alive and cancer-free, so her shoulder wasn’t a priority. However, with the right preoperative and postoperative care, breast cancer patients can avoid these types of injuries or mobility restrictions.

After seeing more patients with similar issues, Ellen and Katie started working with physicians in the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at WashU Medicine to develop the Occupational Therapy for Breast Cancer Program. This was a few years before Ellen was diagnosed with breast cancer herself. Katie spearheaded the research efforts while Ellen focused on the treatment, expanding her skill set to include manual techniques for myofascial release to improve shoulder and chest mobility following radiation therapy and chest wall reconstruction.

Being a spiritual person, Ellen felt her cancer diagnosis happened when it did so that she could be on the cancer journey with her patients. However, she did not disclose her diagnosis at first. When it came time for her surgery, Ellen didn’t tell her patients because she didn’t want to interfere with their progress. However, when she returned to work, I don’t think there was anything from her experience she felt she couldn’t share with her patients. She wanted them to know about everything she thought helped her and to pass along the information if they were interested. And if a patient needed someone to listen to what they learned, Ellen was there to hear it.

Ellen trained several Milliken therapists in what we now call The King Method to continue her work caring for women through their breast cancer journey. Now, those therapists are teaching new team members. I have not been trained yet; it would be too hard at this time, even though she never stopped encouraging me to join her with this population. For me, it is enough to see Ellen’s spirit in the hands and hearts of my fellow therapists as they care for these women in the same loving way Ellen did. We feel her presence every day in the clinic.

We will never forget you or stop seeing you at Milliken, Ellen.