Moving toward recovery

The stroke had stolen so much.

Crystal Little was only 33 years old, and the condition had left her right side numb, made her unable to hear clearly and taken her ability to talk. The Indianapolis resident was in despair of the life she had lost.

But with intensive therapy, she regained her hearing, speaks clearly and reversed the numbness. She credits Community Health Network with rebuilding her life. The opening of a new Community Rehabilitation Hospital South in Greenwood means that others like her will get the help they need.

“When I got there, I couldn’t really talk or move. They could teach me how to redo everything, even with a disability,” she said.

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Community Rehabilitation Hospital South will treat the most severe conditions requiring rehabilitation, including spinal cord injuries, strokes and amputations. When the 54,000-square-foot building opens later this month, patients will receive intensive therapy necessary to heal from their wounds.

Two separate gyms feature harnesses, tracks and equipment to build strength and mobility. People can practice getting in and out of a car, do household activities, such as laundry and dishes, and relearn how to step in and out of the shower on their own.

A transitional apartment allows patients to spend the night and practice their daily routine before they are discharged, to ensure that they’re comfortable on their own.

“We have the ability to provide all of the latest technology and things that we need to do to really change someone’s life to get someone home,” said Annette Seabrook, CEO of Community Rehabilitation Hospital South. “The focus is, you tell us what it is that you do in your life that’s important to you. Our job is to get you back to that.”

The Greenwood hospital is a partnership between Community Health Network and Kindred Healthcare. This will be the third such partnership between the two companies, which also jointly operate Community Rehabilitation Hospital North and Community Howard Specialty Hospital in Kokomo.

Because of the success of those other two hospitals, it made sense to work together on a southside location as well, said Jason Fahrlander, chief operating officer of Community Health Network.

“We saw the success in both the partnership itself, and more importantly, the results of what happens with those patients. We spent a little bit of time trying to find the next opportunity to do that, and we had the opportunity to partner down in the Greenwood area,” he said. “Our whole goal is to provide care locally.”

Renovating an existing Kindred long-term acute care hospital, officials created a free-standing rehab hospital unlike any other in the southern part of Indiana. The facility has 44 private rooms to admit patients with the highest rehabilitation needs.

The hospital is designed to treat patients with serious needs, said Michelle McClelland, director of therapy.

“It’s a very specialized setting,” she said. “There’s a pretty strict admission criteria to become the type of patient who comes here. You have to be able to tolerate at least three hours of therapy a day, five days a week. This is for patients who’ve had a spinal cord injury, a stroke, a brain injury, complex medical problems. These people need intense care.”

Little was one of those patients. She suffered her stroke in late October 2017. A reaction to her birth control medication caused the stroke, which left her without the use of her right arm and leg. She couldn’t speak, and her hearing had deteriorated.

“When people would speak to me, it was like one of the adults in Charlie Brown: wah-wah-wah-wah,” she said.

She started her rehabilitation at Community Rehabilitation Hospital North in Indianapolis 10 days after her stroke. Therapists re-taught her how to read, walk, talk and listen. She had to teach herself to listen closely and better recognize what people were saying. She watched game shows, listening to what people were saying and repeating it back.

They worked with her on daily life necessities, such as bathing and cooking, so she could return home to her two children, ages 10 and 4.

Little has recovered so much that she is planning to start work on her bachelor’s degree in health care management. She is confident that wouldn’t be possible with the help she received at Community.

“Everyone I worked with shared my motivation and provided me support I needed to meet my goals to go home,” she said.

The staff at Community Rehabilitation Hospital South have organized a wide variety of programs to help people such as Little recover.

In the course of their therapy, patients can take advantage of two large interdisciplinary gyms with technologically advanced equipment. For example, stroke victims can use the Ekso Bionic Eksoskeleton, a robotic exoskeleton that straps to their body and assists in movement.

An actual car is parked inside one of the gyms, so people can practice getting in and out of the seat. A therapeutic courtyard allows patients to do activities such as golf and basketball on varied surfaces.

“Our patients can get outside on beautiful days, but also to help build and get back to things they’ve truly enjoyed and participated in throughout their lives,” said Dr. David Kiley, president of Community Health Network, South Region.

One of the highlights is the transitional living apartment, for patients to practice activities they’ll need in their day-to-day life, such as cooking food or getting out of bed. They are left on their own to test their abilities and limits, but a call button is available if they need help.

Patients can figure out if there are any movements or actions that they hadn’t considered, such as bending over to pick something off the floor, and make sure they’re comfortable doing them on their own, said Billy Anderson, a registered nurse at the hospital.

“They can practice being at home, but they still have people here to find out how they feel and what they weren’t comfortable with,” he said. “Then we can tweak those before they go home.”

All of these features come together in the singular goal of getting people back to the lives they knew.

“The primary goal is to care for our patients, to help them adapt and overcome these tragedies that have occurred in their lives, to get their loss of function back to normal and get them back to their families,” Kiley said.

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Community Rehabilitation Hospital South

What: An inpatient facility treating intensive injuries, such as stroke, brain injury, spinal cord injury, neuromuscular diseases, orthopedic, amputations and related disorders.

Who: The hospital is a partnership between Community Health Network and Kindred Healthcare

Where: 607 Greenwood Springs Drive, Greenwood

Size: 54,000 square feet

Beds: 44

Features:

  • All private rooms
  • Large interdisciplinary gyms, including one solely for patients with severe brain injuries
  • Transitional living apartment for patients to practice daily living activities
  • Therapeutic courtyard with golf, basketball, and varied surfaces

Information: ecommunity.com/locations/community-rehabilitation-hospital-south

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