FOCUS ON HEALTH:

Physical therapist Kirsten Sverdrup Robinson moved to America in 1983 because she was curious about its medical system.

When she opened her own practice in April 2007, she brought a little bit of Norway with her.

At the Newport Beach office of Stand Tall, Robinson treats patients with the Redcord Sling Exercise Therapy system, a machine that was developed in her home country.

Robinson is the first physical therapist in America certified to use the Redcord, which uses one or more slings and elastic cords to strengthen muscles and enhance passive range of motion in patients where pain is making it difficult for them to move.

Raised on a small Norwegian island with a population of about 900, Robinson said she knew at age 7 that she wanted to be a physical therapist when she grew up. She just doesn’t know why.

“There were no physical therapists on the island, which was just above the Arctic Circle,” Robinson said.

“I had no idea what physical therapists did. I just knew I wanted to help people, but take it with a pinch of salt how much I really knew about it at that time.”

According to her patients, Robinson knows plenty now.

Her treatment program combines tough, no-nonsense therapy with compassion and humor, and it gets results.

Sandy Segerstrom Daniels ruptured a disk in her neck that required surgery last November.

After about six weeks recuperating, Daniels’ doctor referred her to Robinson for physical therapy.

At the time, Daniels said she wasn’t in any pain, but she also wasn’t doing anything — no exercise, nothing physical, including moving her neck.

The first time Robinson asked her to turn her head, suspended in the Redcord, Daniels said she was scared.

Robinson asked Daniels a lot of questions about what she had done before she ruptured her disk, trying to find out why it might have “blown” in the first place.

“What I like about Kirsten is that she’s one-on-one, she takes the time, asks questions, and there are no machines. She talks to you, her concentration level is high, and she’s hands-on,” Daniels said.

Part of Robinson’s hands-on approach, in addition to massage was her willingness to share “great stories” about the road she traveled to become a physical therapist, and how she ended up in the United States.

When she arrived in Costa Mesa in 1983, Robinson went to Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, was hired as a physical therapist, and remained there until she left to start her own practice in March 2007.

Two of the physicians there were her patients, and it was their encouragement and support that motivated her to go out on her own, Robinson said.

Today, she sees about 11 patients a day, many post-operative patients recovering from spinal and neck surgeries.

David Dittemore of Huntington Beach had neck surgery in October and again in December to remove pieces of bone from his cervical spine.

He sees Robinson twice a week for physical therapy and said the Redcord treatments have restored movement in his neck by 15 degrees in three weeks.

“She hangs me by this rope, to help get my shoulder muscles to loosen up. [With Kirsten] come prepared to do the work.”

Robinson’s approach to patient care is multidimensional. She needs patients to work with her, she said, to understand what has happened to them and what they can do to help her move them along on the road to recovery.

“I always look at why did you get this? Why did you need the hip replacement in the first place? I’m more direct, I get right to the issues and engage [patients] in what I need them to do.”

Robinson said she has enjoyed every minute she’s spent working in the United States, but she knows it’s becoming increasingly difficult for patients to afford quality health care.

“I have Medicare patients, and some people have good insurance, but I’m thinking of doing community service to help people who maybe can’t afford the health care they need,” she said.

SUE THOENSEN may be reached at (714) 966-4627 or at sue.thoensen@latimes.com.