A Marine’s Misdiagnosis Turned into a Mission to Heal Others
Bergen Medal winner Brianna Lally channels adversity in boot camp into a career in physical therapy
After a misdiagnosis left her nearly unable to walk during Marine Corps boot camp, Brianna Lally endured months of pain and neglect — until she took her recovery into her own hands. Now, driven by that experience, she’s become the physical therapist she wished she had.
At 18, Lally had joined the Marine Corps with dreams of making a difference in the world. She was soon on the sandy grounds of Parris Island, South Carolina, at one of the military’s toughest boot camps.
But during the final, 54-hour boot camp endurance test, she leapt from a pull-up bar and shattered her ankle after landing on a metal ammo can. The pain was intense, but a corpsman dismissed it as a minor injury.
She completed the remaining nine-mile hike in tears, and earned her place in the corps. But her foot was black and swollen, and she could no longer walk without help.
She was finally diagnosed after three weeks with a serious fracture and then she later developed an Achilles tendon contracture, caused in part by an improperly applied cast. For months, she remained on base in a medical platoon, facing poor care and hazing because she complained about her care. A threat of discharge from the Marines was the final straw.
“I decided to take charge of my own recovery and rehab my ankle on my own,” she said.
With no formal training, Lally researched physical therapy techniques, set her own recovery plan and within a month, was able to pass a fitness test that finally allowed her to leave Parris Island. But what began as a survival strategy turned into a calling.
“I wanted to make sure no one else had to go through this,” said Lally, who graduates May 20 with a doctoral degree in physical therapy (DPT) from Rutgers School of Health Professions and with the school’s prestigious 2025 Bergen Medal of Excellence.
While deployed, Lally, then just 21, received a Navy Commendation Medal for her logistics work – which included coordinating the transport of 1 million pounds of cargo, including weapons and ammo, as well as people, in response to a developing crisis in Africa. But along with that work, she was applying what she had learned to help others — such as recommending exercises to pilots to relieve aching backs and necks.
After her military discharge, she completed her undergraduate degree in kinesiology at Rutgers-Newark in May 2021. Lally then took a year off to get hands-on experiences in rehabilitation and was accepted into the Rutgers physical therapy program. Initially, she wanted to work within the military health care system to improve care.
“I started out with this almost comic-book-villain vendetta,” she said. “I was going to rejoin the military and make changes.”
As she gained exposure to the profession through her classes, her perspective widened. “I started learning about specialties like pelvic health and cardiopulmonary PT, and it completely changed how I saw the field,” she said.
Pelvic floor therapy piqued her interest; early in her first semester of PT school she was asking her professor if she could do a pelvic floor clinical rotation.
Together, she and another student launched a pelvic health student group within the DPT program, gathering classmates who shared their interest and dedicating their spare time to learning more — before their clinical rotations even began.
“Pelvic floor issues are so under-discussed, but they affect everything — mobility, dignity, intimacy,” she said.
Lally also seized the opportunity to do research and was second author on a research presentation on stroke recovery at a national conference earlier this year. As a research assistant, she also studied and presented on the effect of puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy on bone density among transgender and gender-nonconforming people.
We have no doubt that Brianna will make a profound impact on the lives of her colleagues, patients and the students she will mentor.
Michael Majsak
Director, Doctor of Physical Therapy Program, Rutgers School of Health Professiions
Beginning in her first year, Lally stook on the role of advocacy chair for the PT Class of 2025. As chair, and as a gay woman, she saw a need for more dialogue on providing gender-affirming health care for the LGBQT+ community. She co-founded the group Prideful Future of Healthcare.
Lally led the group in planning SHP’s first panel on queer healthcare, bringing together representatives from the American Physical Therapy Association’s Pelvic Health section, RWJ’s PROUD Gender Center, the Pride Centers of Newark and Asbury Park, and other local and national queer health organizations.
“This was about saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to be treating people from all walks of life. We need to be ready for that,’” said Lally. The event is scheduled to be repeated in June.
In her nomination for the Bergen Medal, which is given annually to one outstanding student at SHP, DPT Program Director Michael Majsak, said “We have no doubt that Brianna will make a profound impact on the lives of her colleagues, patients and the students she will mentor.”
After graduation, Lally intends to pursue a Ph.D. with SHP associate professor and rehabilitation researcher Jean Francois Daneault as her mentor. She plans to study chest binding among transgender and gender-diverse individuals, assessing how it affects rib movement, breathing, back, arms and movement in general.
“I used to be angry for a very long time,” Lally said, reflecting on her path to her career. “But I also don’t regret what happened either. I mean, would I wish it on anybody? No. But because of it, I get to do this. And it’s super awesome.”
