Therapists work to get Wabasha man back on (the) course

Therapists work to get Wabasha man back on (the) course

When Pete Malin slipped out of bed one night and couldn't get up, he didn't think much of it. He'd had surgery on one of his knees and figured that it would help him regain his footing. Turns out, the problem was more serious than that.

The 78-year-old Wabasha resident suffered a brain bleed stroke. He was rushed by ambulance to Rochester for emergency care.

"I was completely numb," Malin said. "My left side, my left arm, my left leg. I was numb."

That stroke in February 2025 was a significant setback for an otherwise active community member with a particular affinity for golf. Malin had worked hard to ensure he and his wife, Sharon, could enjoy their golden years - and his stroke was threatening to change that.

"Going into that point in time, I was leading an active lifestyle for a retiree," Malin said. "I had done things right in terms of setting ourselves up so we could enjoy ourselves."

But strokes don't discriminate.

Care remains steady

Following a several-week stay in intensive care in Rochester, while still wheelchair-bound, Malin was transferred closer to home to Emplify Health by Gundersen Wabasha Care Center - Shields Avenue to begin a long road of physical, occupational and speech therapy.

"I wanted to get the speech therapy because speech therapy is more than speech therapy; it's cognitive therapy," he said. "I had not been affected cognitively, and we didn't want to risk that."

Malin remained in the care center for a couple months, which is a typical stay for patients who experience a health event and need maintenance. What wasn't typical was the complexity of Malin's condition - one that therapists there don't often encounter.

Eventually, though, Malin completed his speech therapy, and he was ready to transfer into the assisted living facility on the hospital campus to continue his physical and occupational therapy with Elizabeth Nofsinger and Ros Aligada, respectively. What followed him from the center was the same attentive style of care.

"Their teaching styles, they not only have the physical therapy background, they have the teaching skills to adapt to what your needs are and what your goals are," he said of his therapists.

Two of Malin's goals included continuing to volunteer for the hospital's Jim Abbott Memorial Golf Outing and playing golf - a sport he picked up later in life. At one point, Malin had no interest in chasing a white ball around a course but eventually decided he'd either need to learn the game, or he may just end up opening another business - an option not favored by his wife, Sharon.

So, when the stroke took away his ability to play, Malin knew he had to regain the use of this arm so he could swing a club again.

"When I realized I was paralyzed, I'm saying, 'Oh my gosh, what am I going to do?'" he said. "Not only that, but am I going to be a drain on my family?"

When Nofsinger started working with Malin in June 2025, he was using a walker, and she noticed he couldn't grip it very well with his hand. He also couldn't get out of a chair easily, and his left hand couldn't find the chair to help him get up. She very quickly realized how much work lay ahead.

So, knowing how important golfing was to him, Nofsinger constructed a makeshift driving range in a hallway near the hospital's rehab room where he could practice hitting small wiffle balls. They also had to work on getting in and out of a golf cart, which is just as much a part of a round as swinging the club.

"I was like, you can stand there and swing, but can you get on and off the cart and on to the grass, put the ball on the ground and grab your club?" Nofsinger said.

Malin made sure that he could.

"They've taken me from, 'What am I going to do?' to, I'm going for a golf lesson on Saturday," Malin said in early February, almost a year to the day that he had his stroke.

Hard work to get home

Malin's move to assisted living also reunited him with Sharon, who up until then, was still living in the couple's condo near the river but found that she, too, qualified for assisting living services because of her own health issues. Today, they're both still living in their hospital apartment, and Malin still works with Nofsinger three days a week and Aligada twice weekly.

Nofsinger is impressed by Malin's progress.

"I didn't even know if he could get out of the nursing home after hearing what happened to him," she said. "His whole left side did nothing. … Most people wouldn't do this well."

Malin is driven to recover for many reasons, though his steps are measured.

"I want to go back to as normal of a life as possible," he said. "I'd love to go back to the condo, but right now, it really doesn't make sense for us. It's nice here, it's convenient here, it's safer here."

He knows, eventually, they'll both move back to their home on the river - a place they both strive to be. But Pete realizes that if he's to continue caring for Sharon like he did before his stroke, he needs to fully heal.

"It motivates me a lot," he said. "I have to get solid first."