Patients Age: 83-years-old
Admission Date: 8/8/2018
Admitted From: Mt Sinai West Hospital
Discharge Date: 1/11/2018
Discharged To: Home
Length of Stay: 85 days
Reason for Stay: Short term rehabilitation
How did this patient hear about The Riverside?: A friend who was a former patient.

Miss. Boradach came to The Riverside on the 8th of August 2018, from Mount Sinai West Hospital, with a primary diagnosis of sepsis to the left knee, and a secondary diagnosis of urinary tract infection (UTI), hypertension, glaucoma, and Crohn’s disease. Prior to her admission, the sepsis in her right leg caused Miss. Boradach a tremendous amount of pain. She visited the hospital where they injected a cortisone shot into the infected area, which greatly relieved the pain. Two days later, the pain returned. Miss. Boradach was admitted to the hospital and underwent an arthroscopic washout of her left knee. The orthopedic team at the hospital recommended sub-acute rehabilitation to help Miss. Boradach return to her daily life.

Miss. Boradach was welcomed by The Riverside team members with open arms. Members of each department stopped by to welcome her to the community.

Upon her initial physical therapy evaluation, Miss. Boradach was unable to walk and required maximum assistance for all functional transfers. Miss. Boradach was experiencing a pain level of 8 out of 10.

After several weeks of rehabilitation, her progress was very limited. She was still unable to ambulate by herself and was unable to climb even one step. Miss. Boradach became apprehensive and was beginning to doubt if she will ever be able to walk again. Her family, who has been supporting her throughout this whole experience, began to lose hope as well.

Miss. Boradach’s therapist began E-Stim therapy (Electrical Stimulation) for 10 days, in attempt to reduce the pain. This was a valued success, causing her pain level to drop down to 2 out of 10.

Slowly but surely with each day, she began to see improvement. After several days of walking with maximum assistance from her therapists, she began to feel stronger. After two months, Miss. Boradach was able to take her first steps on her own with a rollator! All of Miss. Boradach’s fears of never being able to walk again were set aside as she slowly walked down the hallway outside our rehabilitation gym. Her therapists and family members were amazed, but there was still more work ahead. Miss. Boradach and her therapists continued to work together each day to focus on improving her balance and her walking.

After a few more weeks of intense physical therapy (PT) and occupational therapy (OT), Miss. Boradach received the word from her social worker that the rehabilitation department had set a discharge date for the 1st of November. She could not believe it! She shared, “I thought I would never walk again or even be able to move my leg. The first time I tried walking with the rollator I couldn’t even take one step. My therapists knew exactly how far to push me. They did an excellent job with me.”

At this time, Miss. Boradach is able to walk 125-150 feet independently with her rollator. She can go to the bathroom and walk around on her own as well. She is also able to climb three inch stairs with standby assistance. Her therapists shared that climbing stairs is a real milestone for Miss. Boradach. A couple of months back, climbing stairs was looking like an impossible task for her to accomplish, to the point where she even refused to try! But that was all in the past.

On the 1st of November 2018, Miss. Boradachs family arrived at the community to take her home. What was once nightmare had finally come to an end, as Miss. Boradach will be returning home with her daughter in Massachusetts. The nurse manager and doctor stopped by to go over the discharge plans and wished her well. The smile on her face as her children loaded up the car is one that will always be remembered. We are so happy for Miss. Boradach!