Ms. G: No One Gave Up

Ms. G, 72, was living independently with her family when she was admitted to the emergency room of a short-term acute care hospital after three days of flu-like symptoms.

Her condition declined rapidly and a CAT scan revealed a large frontal and intraventricular hemorrhage. To protect her airway, Ms. G was intubated and placed on a mechanical ventilator.

Though her prognosis was poor, Ms. G’s family was determined to find the most appropriate care setting, and so she was transferred to Kindred Hospital Tucson.

Ms. G was admitted for ventilator weaning, rehabilitation, and management of her diabetes, hypertension, atrial fibrillation and elevated blood sugars. Upon admission, Ms. G was essentially comatose and non-responsive.

The Kindred interdisciplinary team began designing her plan of care, beginning with vent weaning. The respiratory team started Ms. G. on weaning trials and soon she had progressed to a trach mask.

The rehabilitation team’s speech therapists began to work with her as she became more responsive, focusing on swallowing, compensatory safety strategies and cognitive improvement. Her swallowing improved and she was able to begin taking in a pureed diet.

Family education and training was another key to this patient’s success because Ms. G only spoke Spanish.

With the persistent care of her therapists, nurses, doctors and family, Ms. G progressed slowly but consistently in all areas. She was eventually weaned off the vent, decannulated and able to eat a solid diet with close supervision by her family.

Eventually, she was discharged home.

Since discharge, Ms. G has returned to visit and thank her Kindred Hospital caregivers. A year later, she is still doing beautifully with the help and support of her loving family.

Kindred Hospital Tucson’s success is apparent in stories like this as well as in our quality scores – our patients and families rate our quality of care at over 93 percent and 98 percent would recommend Kindred.