Age: 78-years-old
Date of Admission: 05/22/19
Admitted From: St. Mary’s Hospital
Discharge Date: 07/06/19
Discharge To: Home with sister
Length of stay: 45 days
Reason for stay: Patient presented with a decline in self-care skills, functional mobility/transfers, decreased strength, decreased balance, shortness of breath (SOB), and decreased activity tolerance secondary to cholecystectomy.
How did the patient hear about Jupiter Center? Patient stayed at our community twice before.

Details of experience:
Mary’s story is a special one, the type that people would call a miracle. Mary’s journey begins all the way back in January of 2019. It all started with pain on the right side of her stomach and back. She decided to go see her primary doctor because of the severity of the pain. As soon as Mary expressed the symptoms she was experiencing, her doctor sent her to get an ultrasound. The ultrasound later revealed she was suffering from gallstones. She was immediately sent to the hospital to have surgery to remove her gallbladder.

She arrived at St. Mary’s Hospital ready for surgery. Unfortunately for Mary, her surgeon gave her some unexpected news. He shared with her that he was unable to perform the surgery due to her irregular heartbeat. He did not feel that she would make it through the surgery because of the use of general anesthesia. Before she was discharged from the hospital, they found that she had a blockage in her bowels. She was sent to see a gastroenterologist; he too did not want to remove her gallbladder because of her heart issues. Although her gallbladder could not be removed, her gastroenterologist was able to resolve the blockage!

Mary was admitted to Jupiter Rehab for the first time on January 17, 2019. She did well in therapy and graduated. Fast forward a few months later, Mary suffered another blockage caused by gallstones. While she was in the hospital recovering from another procedure to remove the gallstones, her surgeon came in and informed her that he would be able to remove her gallbladder laparoscopically! She was so thrilled and relieved after being told by two doctors that she would never be able to have her gallbladder removed and now she would not have to deal with gallstones again. The surgery went well, but she developed a terrible infection shortly thereafter.

She was admitted a second time to our community on March 25, 2019. Unfortunately for Mary, she did not stay long because she wasn’t able to keep down any food or liquids and could not stop vomiting. She was sent to the ER and readmitted. She had bile that had backed up into her stomach which she had to have drained. She also had to have an NG tube put in. She returned to us for the third time but in a lot worse shape.

Mary arrived at Jupiter Rehabilitation for the third time on May 22, 2019. She was experiencing shortness of breath, decline in self-care skills, functional mobility/transfers, decreased strength, decreased balance and decreased activity tolerance secondary to cholecystectomy. She required supervision for self-feeding and hygiene/grooming. Mary required maximum assistance for upper body bathing and total assistance for lower body bathing, she also required total assistance with using the restroom and restroom transfers. She required maximum assistance with upper body dressing and total assistance lower body dressing. In order for her to walk around, she required maximum assistance.

After participating in skilled OT and PT services, Mary was able to regain her strength and balance, increase her activity tolerance, no longer needed oxygen and increased independence in self-care skills and gait. At the time of discharge, she required supervision with using the restroom and with restroom transfers, supervision with lower body dressing and lower-body bathing, supervision with upper body bathing and dressing and modified independence from a walker to ambulate. Mary was able to return home to live independently with her twin sister.

Our concierge director, Samantha, visited Mary the day before her discharge and listened to her story and how far she has come. Samantha stated, “I could see a glimmer in her eyes of how happy and proud she was of herself for all her hard work.” Mary stated to her, “When I returned to Jupiter Rehab for the third time, I was in such bad shape and couldn’t breathe. No one would think I would make it. But with the staff, who are so wonderful, I just can’t say enough about them, they helped me and believed in me and now I’m alive and going home.”

Team Jupiter sends Mary many well wishes and congratulations!