Patient’s Age: 76-years-old
Admission Date: 06/08/19
Admitted From: West Boca Medical Center
Discharge Date: Currently Outpatient
Discharged To: Home
Length of Stay: TBD
Reason for Stay: Left Knee Amputation.
How did this patient hear about The Encore: Online research by the patient’s daughter.


Details of experience:
On a pleasant day, as Mrs. Rosemary Fraschilla was making her bed, her life quickly changed. Mrs. Fraschilla hit her leg on the bed frame. A seemingly small injury rapidly escalated, as an infection began leading to gangrene. This severe infection prevented blood flow to her leg and unfortunately, the result was a left knee amputation.

Rosemary and her daughter chose The Encore for her rehabilitation and worked diligently to learn to walk once again. Upon arrival, Rosemary status was maximum assist for transferring, ambulating, and bed mobility. Nonetheless, Rosemary stayed motivated and chose to start pushing through to achieve success…being able to walk again!

In the first weeks of Rosemary’s stay, she worked with her physical therapist, Michael Jordan, to progress to walking (hopping) 15 feet and becoming a moderate assist for transfers. A short time after with focused efforts and exercises with her therapists, she progressed to minimum assist and was walking (hopping) 20 feet.

On her last week as an inpatient, Rosemary had progressed to contact guard assist. She left knowing that she will return as an outpatient as soon as her prosthesis arrived. Upon inpatient discharge, she shared with our team “The staff [at The Encore] are very nice and kind. They were always reassuring me.”

When her prosthesis arrived, Rosemary returned to The Encore, as an outpatient, to learn how to walk with the device and become independent. Mrs. Fraschilla spoke in glowing terms of her therapist, Jillian Lerner. She shared with our staff that “Jillian is fabulous! She is very, very good!” At the beginning of her outpatient therapy, the patient needed minimal help for transfers, 15 feet on the walking gate and standby assist for bed mobility.

With a bit more time, she accomplished standby transfers and was walking 60 feet standby assist with a walker. Rosemary continues to stay determined and never gave up. She also had lots of help from The Encore’s Amputee Walking Program. This phenomenal program is managed with a hands-on approach by two Paralympic Gold Medalists, Todd Schaffhauser, and Dennis Oehler, who have mentored over 20,000 amputees worldwide. Rosemary stated, “Todd and Dennis from the Amputee Program are fabulous. They’re the reason that I came to The Encore. They have given me lots of encouragement. It’s because of them that I am walking today!”

It is such a pleasure to see Rosemary at The Encore. We love watching her continue her progress every day!