FROM VENTILATOR WEANING TO NEW LEASE ON LIFE
Radius Team Approach Promotes Profound Change in Patient's Health
When South Weymouth resident Lois Keymont, 44, was admitted to South Shore Hospital for multiple health concerns, she couldn't have imagined the journey that would take her from the brink of death to a renewed sense of purpose and good health. She owes much of this transformation to the care she received at Radius Specialty Hospital-Boston.
Not long after arriving at South Shore Hospital, Ms. Keymont developed pneumonia and her lung collapsed. She was given both a tracheostomy and feeding tube to help her breathe and to provide nutrition. She spent the better part of her month-long stay at the hospital in the intensive care unit, in a semi-conscious state. “I remember very little about that hospitalization,” Ms. Keymont says. “They didn't think I was going to make it.”
Upon transfer to Radius, she was followed by a team providing medicine, pulmonology, nursing, nutrition, and psychiatric services. She was given aggressive treatment with the goal of weaning her off a ventilator and making sure she could breathe well without it.
“When I became aware, I realized I couldn't walk, talk or even get out of bed,” Ms. Keymont remembers. “I was weak and scared and crying and wanted to go home. At Radius, they started (to build up my strength) slowly with pureed food and then ground food. They gave me a special valve so I could talk.”
During the four weeks she was at Radius, Ms. Keymont received extensive physical, occupational, and speech therapy. When she was able to walk, she enjoyed taking therapy in the hospital's outdoor spaces. “Sometimes I felt too depressed when it was therapy time, but the staff made you do it. I got really close to the therapists. They gave me motivation and strength,” she says.
According to Christine Campbell-Reardon, MD, a Radius pulmonologist also on staff at Boston Medical Center and Boston University School of Medicine, “Our team stuck with Lois and did a phenomenal job. Her recovery went beyond the ventilator weaning; we saw a profound, remarkable change in her approach to life.”
Ms. Keymont was able to return home with follow up from visiting nurses; she now has returned to her part-time job, attends AA meetings, and continues her recovery.
“The staff showed me a whole new world. Radius brought me back to life,” say Ms. Keymont.
PUBLISHED WITH PERMISSION.
