Mike: Getting His Legs Back

After suffering from progressive shortness of breath over four weeks, Mike, 70, was admitted to a local hospital and diagnosed with bibasilar infiltrate. Shortly after his admission, he went into respiratory failure and given a tracheostomy. While in the hospital, he underwent cardiac catheterization, as well as left renal artery stenosis. Mike was slowly weaned off the ventilator, but needed more aggressive management of his tracheostomy tube and rehabilitation to get him moving again. He and his family chose Kindred Hospital Milwaukee.

Mike was admitted to Kindred Hospital Milwaukee requiring moderate assistance to roll over and sit up. He was unable to stand and needed complete assistance for regular activities such as grooming and dressing.

The first step to getting Mike on his way to recovery was removing his trach tube. Soon after he was admitted, the respiratory team at Kindred helped achieve this. Speech therapy followed, starting with speaking valve trials and within two weeks, he was able to speak and his diet went from liquids to full, regular meals.

As a retired mechanical engineer and active adult, Mike was eager to regain his strength again. At first, he could tolerate only 15 minutes of physical therapy at a time. But with the help of the rehabilitation team, Mike made excellent progress. He worked his way up to walking on level surfaces with a wheeled walker and was able to walk up and down a flight of stairs using the rail.

Mike was fiercely independent, and was determined to doing day-to-day tasks on his own. Kindred’s occupational therapy team helped him make huge gains in regaining his independence. They met five times per week for therapeutic procedures and self care training throughout Mike’s stay. By the end of his stay, he was able to bathe, groom, dress and feed himself with little to no assistance and was motivated to continue his therapy until he was back to normal.

Through his determination, the support and encouragement of his wife and three children and the dedication of the staff at Kindred, Mike was discharged to a lower level of care a month after his admission. He has since returned home and is doing great, occasionally visiting the staff at Kindred Hospital Milwaukee that helped him so much in his recovery.

Kindred Hospital Milwaukee's success in our endeavor to provide quality care is apparent in stories like this as well as our quality outcomes - 92.8% of our patients and families would recommend Kindred.