Patient’s Age: 89-years-old
Admission Date: 08/16/19
Admitted From: Morristown Medical Center
Discharge Date: 08/27/19
Length of Stay: 11 Days
Discharged To: Home
Reason for Stay: Altered mental status, coronary artery disease, small bowel obstruction.
How did this patient hear about Chatham Hills? Hospital referral.


Details of Experience:
Can you imagine living your life in pain and feeling like there is no solution? For Richard, this is how he was living. He was experiencing recurrent severe pain in his stomach too often. The pain was happening once a month then started occurring every two weeks. He tried to figure out what was causing it by making various changes in his life, one was his diet. Nothing worked. He finally decided to see a doctor who sent him right to the Morristown emergency room on August 10th.

Richard was suffering from a small bowel obstruction, coronary artery disease and also altered mental status. He had persistent nausea/vomiting for a week and was not able to tolerate anything by mouth during that time period. Unfortunately for Richard, he was not a surgical candidate due to his cardiac history. He stated, “I was sitting in the hospital wondering if I will ever get back to how life was before.” The medical team at Morristown knew he was going to need extensive rehabilitation services to regain the strength that he once had.

Richard was admitted to Chatham Hills on August 16, 2019. He was greeted by Team Chatham Hills upon arrival. His goal upon admission was, “to get my legs feeling better and walk better so I can go back home with my wife.” Our highly-trained therapy team assessed him and discovered he was only able to ambulate 25 feet with assistance, not able to ascend/descend steps and needed assistance with all activities of daily living.

He participated in therapy six days a week consistently participating in self-care tasks like dressing, bathing, and toileting. Richard was also being educated on his cardiac precautions for his home management tasks, self-care tasks and how to safely outdoor garden. Richard was quickly healing and got stronger every day.

Nearing his discharge date, Richard was now able to ambulate over 300 feet with just someone there to supervise and able to ascend/descend 8 steps! He stated to our Concierge, “Therapy at Chatham Hills went very well. I’m so happy that I decided to go to the doctor in the first place, it was a good choice. Everyone was friendly and treated me really well. The food was also made good for me. I’m excited that I was able to return home to my wife, she takes good care of me!”

Team Chatham Hills is thrilled to congratulate Richard on all his progress and we wish and his wife nothing but the best!