Age: 98-years-old
Date of Admission: 06/04/2019
Admitted From: Jupiter Medical Center
Discharge Date: 06/20/2019
Discharge To: Home with Grandson
Length of stay: 16 days
Reason for stay: Short-of-breath, s/p cardiac catheterization, Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) and stent to the right coronary artery (RCA).
Reason for stay: This patient had been at Jupiter in the past. Her experience was very positive; and she decided to return.


Details of experience:
It began one sunny morning, when Ms. Virginia Donnelly, “Ginny”, went to retrieve her morning newspaper. As she was walking down the driveway, she slipped and fell fracturing her hip and hitting her face on the concrete. She was rushed to the hospital and scheduled for hip replacement surgery. Ginny was healing nicely and moving forward in her recovery until a bout of pneumonia set back her progress. After a longer than anticipated admission, she was sent home with orders for therapy to help her walk post-surgery.

As time passed, Ginny developed a cough. Her daughter was concerned and transported her to the ER, where she was admitted to the ICU and remained for a few weeks. Ultimately, the hospital discharged Ginny home, as there was no further appropriate treatment.

She returned to the hospital on May 24, 2019, with shortness of breath, complaints of weakness, chest pain and lethargy. The doctors found the patient had suffered a Myocardial Infarction (heart attack) as a result of an RCA occlusion. Ginny had a PCI and stent placement to the RCA to open the artery. She was diagnosed with STEMI inferior wall, dyspnea, acute respiratory failure, and hypoxemia.

Ginny was transferred to Jupiter Rehab on June 4, 2019. Upon arrival, the patient was evaluated by occupational and speech therapy. She required minimal assist for restroom transfers, her standing balance was minimal assist during ADL (activities of daily living) tasks and she required minimal assist for bathing. Ginny required CGA (contact guard assist) to ambulate during functional mobility. It was determined by the occupational team that she was experiencing decreased strength, balance and endurance secondary to having a heart attack. Ginny required assistance during daily activities and needed reminders about safety awareness. These impairments were preventing the patient from returning home safely, as she was at risk for falls and further injury. Ginny began rehab to focus on increasing safety awareness, maximizing rehab potential, promoting an increase in activity tolerance and endurance, assessing independence with self-care tasks, gait training and increased balance and strength in order to enhance her quality of life by improving her ability to return home independently.

After 16 days of rehab, Ginny only required set-up assist to complete restroom transfers, had fair to good balance during standing ADL tasks and was able to bathe with a set-up assist. She was able to ambulate with modified independence using a rolling walker. Ginny was able to return home on June 20, 2019, to her prior level of function.

Ginny has been doing great since she has been home. Both her primary doctor and cardiologist say that she is doing fine. Ginny stated, “I enjoyed my time at Jupiter Rehab. All the staff was so nice and caring. I never know when my last day is, but my doctors say I’m doing fine. I plan to live as long as I can, and to live my life to the fullest.”