Patient’s Age: 81-years-old
Admission Date: 12/17/19
Admitted From: Morristown Medical Center
Discharge Date: 01/04/2020
Length of Stay: 18 Days
Reason for Stay: Back fracture
How did this patient hear about Chatham Hills? Social worker referral. Been here before.


Details of Experience:
Imagine being completely active and independent and waking up to agonizing pain. For Judy, this was totally unexpected and left her immobile. She did not know what was happening. She thought she may have just slept in a weird position. She tried several solutions to help herself with the pain and her inability to get out of bed. The visiting nurse that was scheduled to help her at home knew something was seriously wrong. She called 911 and Judy was rushed to the emergency room. Judy presented to Morristown Medical Center for an evaluation and MRI. To her surprise, she was given the unsettling news that she had four fractures in her back. Knowing that she was going to have to return home with her husband, extensive subacute rehab was required for a proper recovery.

Judy knew there was only one place she wanted to go for rehab, one she had been to before, a place that she is familiar with… She was admitted to Chatham Hills on December 17th where she was greeted by our staff who were, under the circumstances, excited to see her and were passionate about helping her regain her strength. She was independent prior to admission and knew she had to stay motivated to get back there. Her goal was, “to be able to resume what I was doing before and get my pain under control”. Our highly-trained therapy team knew she would benefit from a personalized, well-thought-out plan for skilled PT/OT services. During her initial assessment, she presented with compromised general health, a decrease in mobility, and intolerable pain. Judy was motivated and ready to begin her healing process. She actively participated in therapy six days a week, consistently practicing getting in and out of bed, dynamic balance activities while standing, climbing stairs and practicing her self care tasks with assistance. The only setback Judy had was she was in excruciating pain. Our therapy, doctors and nursing staff all had to work together to get her pain under control before she had to go work out.

Judy was very active prior to this incident. She did not require any assistive devices and she was the President of several organizations in her community. She knew if she wanted to get back to performing these activities then she would need to stay extra motivated. Upon admission, Judy required assistance with all ADLs (Activities of Daily Living), could only ambulate 15 feet with contact guard assistance and could not ascend/descend any steps. With consistent progress, she was able to reach all her goals! She was able to walk over 200 feet, ascend/descend the steps, and was regaining independence with her self-care tasks!

Our Director of Concierge Services visited Judy nearing her discharge date. Judy shared, “it was nice to come back here to familiar surroundings. Everyone was kind and lovely and it was nice to see that the staff members remembered me. The therapy is the best here and they are the best with the patients. They do absolutely everything that they thought was impossible for me. It is really amazing and they lead you along a path of recovery. I also love Dr. Prager, the Medical Director here. He is so good and thorough that I made him my primary doctor. I’m so happy that he is here at Chatham Hills.”

Team Chatham Hills is thrilled to congratulate Judy on all her progress and we wish her the best of luck!