Texas County Memorial Hospital’s rehabilitation department, home health,and swing bed unit all received commendations from James Roth, a patient from Houston, after his recent graduation from the rehabilitation services program necessitated by a lengthy hospitalization.
James, known as Jim, walked into Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis scheduled for a heart procedure.
“The procedure was postponed after they found I had an infection that complicated issues and delayed the original procedure indefinitely,” he said.
Jim spent 19 days at Barnes, part of that in the intensive care unit, after being diagnosed with Tularemia, an uncommon and potentially serious illness caused by the bacterium Francisella tularensis. While people may become infected differently, the disease is often via a tick bite, as with him.
“I was successfully treated at Barnes and came home after losing 33 pounds, barely able to walk and using a wheelchair,” he shared.
He needed assistance rebuilding his strength and mobility, bringing him to TCMH.
Roth spent two weeks in the TCMH Swing Bed Unit, where he was provided with a stable, rehabilitative environment for recovery and strength improvement from his previous medical situation.
After leaving the Swing Bed Unit, he received TCMH Home Health assistance for four weeks.
“Our goal with Home Health is to get the patient back to their pre-incident normal,” said Patricia Hopkins, physical therapy assistant. “At-home physical therapy was set up to help Mr. Roth with strength, balance,and endurance. His goal was to return to his daily gardening and mowing activities. An assisted home exercise routine that included distance walking and getting on and off his mower helped him to achieve that goal.”
Jim was then able to advance to a four-week program of physical therapy at TCMH.
“We appreciate Mr. Roth’s continuing confidence in our department for his therapy needs,” Ellen Willis, Rehabilitation Services director, said. “We are excited to watch his ongoing progress. Our rehabilitation services department offers a full spectrum of services, including outpatient physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, inpatient therapy, swing bed and home health programs. We were able to assist Jim in his continuing recovery by utilizing several of these options.”
Persistence and the assistance of the caring staff in the departments at TCMH have contributed to his rehabilitation from a wheelchair to the use of a walker and then a cane.
He continues to take gradual steps to complete mobility after graduating from the physical therapy program.
The onset of the illness and the recuperative process have taken three months, and he continues to work toward full recovery.
“The extreme heat recently has me taking early morning walks,” he said. “I’m walking one-half mile in 14 minutes now, and I plan on increasing that to one mile.”
For additional information about our programs, including TCMH rehabilitation services, call 417-967-1201; TCMH Home Health of the Ozarks, call 417-967-1240; and TCMH Swing bed program, call 417-967-1374.