Success Stories

Judy is back on her feet and she came to Kindred for a visit.

Judy was admitted to Kindred Hospital multiple times last year for rehab to help her regain her independence. Her determination and the great work by Gary and Anjali in physical therapy paid off and now Judy is back to her old self again.

Not only did Judy come back to Kindred for a visit, she also shared that she is volunteering at the Pay-It-Forward house to lend a helping hand.

When Judy was at Kindred last year she was so weak she wasn't able to bear any weight on her legs and feet, but when she came in to thank the staff who cared for her, everyone was amazed at how well she was doing.

Thank you for dropping by for a visit, Judy! You really made our day when we saw you walking without any assistance and completely free of the wheelchair..

She was first hospitalized at a general hospital where she underwent surgery on her back and started a series of intravenous antibiotic treatments. She was admitted to Kindred Hospital to continue her rehabilitation and get closer to her goal of going home again.

At Kindred, with her family by her side and her team of caregivers and therapists providing support, care and encouragement, Carolyn made excellent progress and is now moving on to a dedicated rehab facility to complete her journey to recovery and returning home.

All of us at Kindred wish Carolyn all the best and have no doubt she’ll be home very soon!

Carrie discovered in early January that she needed to have a cardiac bypass surgery after a visit to her doctor revealed unexpected problems with her heart. The operation was scheduled and went well; however, Carrie suffered from a series of complications that led to sudden onset of respiratory failure, kidney failure and a major infection. Carrie had to be given a tracheostomy along with ventilator support for her breathing and a feeding tube. But this was only the beginning of what was to be a long 5 month journey to recovery.

She had a cardiac arrest and coded not long after her first surgery and had to have yet another emergency surgical intervention. In a very delicate and critical condition, Carrie remained hospitalized and she was transferred to another hospital for continuation of care where she coded again. It was during this time that her daughter Theresa, the Director of Quality Management at Kindred Hospital Sycamore, assumed Power of Attorney over her mother’s care.

“We arranged for my mother to transfer to Kindred Hospital Sycamore as soon as she was stable because of the level of care and the experience with patients like my mother,” Theresa shared. “When my mother arrived she was in very bad shape – she’d been in a hospital bed for 6 weeks and she needed to be in a place where she could truly begin her recovery.”

Carrie began treatment for several conditions – she needed wound care to heal the initial surgical wounds and the pulmonary team helped her regain her lung strength until Carrie was successfully weaned from the ventilator. She also worked with physical, occupational and speech therapists to develop her overall strength and slowly made progress until she was able to start taking small steps again with the aid of a walker.

“Looking back, it was the scariest thing I’ve ever been through,” Carrie recalled. “The entire staff pushed me and never gave up – every day, 7 days a week – until I was able to move on to a rehab facility. I am grateful to Kindred for being there for me – first as a job and security, and then when I needed care. I couldn’t have hoped for a better place to be.”

Carrie just recently came back to visit the hospital and her colleagues and staff who cared for her. She paid a special visit to the garden where she had previously planted flowers. “Not only did she plant the flowers and tend to them,” Theresa added, “But she also was the person who routinely put up decorations to celebrate different occasions and patient milestones.”

“I keep getting better little by little,” Carrie said. “I’m still doing physical therapy and seeing an infectious disease doctor, but I’ve definitely got enough energy to chase my grandkids again! As for coming back to work, I’m going to wait until I’m fully recovered and see how I’m doing at the end of the year.”

Carrie, all of us at Kindred are inspired by your story and your positive attitude! Thank you for coming by to spread some cheer and share your recovery. We miss you and hope that you continue to get better and get your health back soon.

He was immobilized with broken bones, fractured ribs and a punctured lung. “Somehow I was able to wiggle around and get the cell phone out of my pocket,” he said. He called his wife, and within an hour a medical helicopter was taking him to a short-term acute care hospital. He stayed there in the Intensive Care Unit for seven weeks and was then admitted to Kindred Hospital. “Really, by that point he was still in critical condition,” his wife said. “He was totally dependent on a ventilator to breathe. The people at the hospital had done everything they could – we just needed to go somewhere where they had expertise in caring for vent patients.” Almost immediately, the caregivers at Kindred Hospital began rehabilitation therapy and the process of weaning John from the ventilator. “He had been on his back for seven weeks, and gradually they kept having him do a little more at a time,” his wife said. “The walking helped him strengthen his lungs.” “I felt like I was making progress, absolutely,” John said. “I’d heard of Kindred before, but I didn’t really know what they did.” Six weeks later, John was released to home care to fully recover. “By the time we left, he was walking, breathing, swallowing and eating,” his wife said. “And it was the teamwork that was great.” “The care was excellent,” John said. “Everybody knew what they were doing and everybody worked together.” “Just excellent.”

She was admitted to Kindred on February 16 for ventilator weaning and management of conditions complicating her hospitalization including diabetes mellitus, hypertension, diverticulitis, deconditioning and a sacral decubitus ulcer.

On February 28, she was placed on the weaning protocol. The speech-language pathologist started her with a Passy Muir valve in-line with the ventilator on March 2.

The next day, she was started on TTAV (trans-tracheal augmented ventilation), per the weaning protocol, so she could speak during her weaning sessions. She progressed steadily and gained strength with the addition of aggressive physical and occupational therapy and speech-language pathology for the next two weeks.

On March 15, Vicenta was weaned from the ventilator. On March 18, she was decannulated and her tracheostomy tube was removed. She was discharged on March 23 to acute rehab with a plan for ultimately going home. By this time, she had made good functional gains in occupational therapy, was able to complete basic activities of daily living, was ambulating 60 feet, and was swallowing pureed foods.

We look forward to a visit from Vicenta and her family in the near future.