Patient’s Age: 44-year-old female
Admission Date: 06/25/2019
Admitted From: St. Joseph’s Medical Center
Discharge Date: 08/08/2019
Discharged To: Home
Length of Stay: 6 weeks
Reason for Stay: Pulmonary Embolism
How did this patient hear about Sans Souci? Hospital recommendation

Details of Experience:
Ms. Christine Kalsky arrived at Sans Souci Rehabilitation and Nursing Center on June 25, 2019, from St. Joseph’s Medical Center. Prior to arriving at Sans Souci, Christine developed pneumonia, sustained a pulmonary embolism, all with a prior diagnosis of COPD. Upon completion of her hospital stay, Christine was referred to Sans Souci to begin respiratory therapy, as well as physical and occupational therapy.

Upon admission, Christine was greeted by multiple members of the Sans Souci interdisciplinary team. The team welcomed Christine to our community and conducted evaluations to custom tailor Christine’s stay. Christine required 3 liters of oxygen and utilized a wheelchair at the time of admission.

Christine was evaluated by members of the rehabilitation team who performed an initial evaluation on Christine. Christine’s rehabilitation goals were to be able to safely perform transfers independently, ambulate 275 feet with a rolling walker, perform ADL’s independently, and ascend 15 steps on stairs.

During her stay, Christine was an active participant in the daily recreation activities. She made many friends among the staff as well as residents. Christine enjoyed attending recreation activities such as horse racing, birthday parties, bingo, BBQs, and musician visits led by Recreation Director, Leduc Le, and Recreation Therapist, Omar Garcia. Christine also enjoyed the luxury concierge amenities here at Sans Souci, such as our signature Snack Cart program for residents. Christine would alert the concierge, Aryeh Schachter, who would accommodate all of her expressed wishes whenever she had a special request.

Christine also began working with our Respiratory Therapist, Terrance Seymour for pulmonary rehabilitation education. Christine was given education on how to manage her diagnosis and given exercises to increase endurance and strength with limited use of oxygen. With exercise, Christine was soon able to only necessitate 2 liters of oxygen.

Three weeks into her stay, Christine was upgraded to utilizing only 1 liter of oxygen. Christine worked with Dexter Galette from the OT team and Sam Opeyemi from the PT to meet her OT and PT goals. By mid-July, Christine was able to ambulate 150 feet with minimal assistance using a rolling walker, ascend 8 steps on the stairs, and required only minimal assistance for her ADL’s as well as transfers.

Christine’s progress with decreasing portable oxygen intake continued to improve. Terrance had Christine utilizing only room air during the week and as needed portable oxygen. One week later, Christine was taken off portable oxygen altogether and was able to thrive in the community.

By the end of July, Christine continued to make progress with her rehab goals. With the team’s support, Christine was now able to walk 200 feet with a rolling walker and ascend 14 steps on the stairs.

At her discharge at the beginning of August, Christine had exceeded her PT goals for ambulation and was able to walk a distance of 300 feet independently using a rolling walker and ascend more than 15 steps on the community stairs utilizing handrails. Christine also met her OT goals and was independently performing transfers and ADL’s.

Christine shared with the team as she was leaving the community, “Sans Souci gave me purpose and meaning to my life. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be so motivated to keep pushing on. They have activities daily, which helped my mental status. Every day here was great. Thank you for all the love and support and for making me feel like family. If you need rehabilitation and nursing care, this is the place to go!”