News at Whittier Rehabilitation Hospitals – Bradford & Westborough
Stroke Patients Walk Again in Westborough
Whittier Rehabilitation Hospital on Flanders Road is among the first in the nation to offer an award-winning therapy that is helping stroke patients regain their ability to walk. The therapy is offered by Tibion Corp. Read the full story here. For more information, call us at (508) 871-2128.
Healthy Cooking for the Holiday Season
On December 1, Michael Damon, Whittier Rehabilitation Hospital’s Director of Food Services, offered a “Healthy Holiday Cuisine” seminar to educate community members on how to cook healthier foods and how to avoid unnecessary weight gain during the holiday season. Read the full article here.
Whittier Rehabilitation Hospital-Westborough Awarded Accreditation from The Joint Commission
March 16, 2010—By demonstrating compliance with The Joint Commission’s national standards for health care quality and safety, Whittier Rehabilitation Hospital-Westborough has earned The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval.TM
Founded in 1951, The Joint Commission is dedicated to continuously improving the safety and quality of the nation’s health care through voluntary accreditation. The Joint Commission’s on-site survey of Whittier Rehabilitation Hospital-Westborough occurred in March 2010.
“Above all, the national standards are intended to stimulate continuous, systematic and organization-wide improvement in an organization’s performance and the outcomes of care,” says Mark Pelletier, R.N., M.S., executive director, Hospital Programs, Accreditation and Certification Services, The Joint Commission. “The community should be proud that Whittier Rehabilitation Hospital-Westborough is focusing on the most challenging goal—to continuously raise quality and safety to higher levels.”
Rebecca Roman, Whittier Rehabilitation Hospital-Westborough Administrator, spoke of her pride in a staff whose members ask what needs to be done to be accredited by The Joint Commission. “In addition, they appreciate the educational aspect of the survey and the opportunity to interact with the team of surveyors.” She called the accreditation, ”proof of an organization-wide commitment to provide quality care on an ongoing basis.”
A time to be thankful…
November 18, 2009—The Westborough Recreation Department and patients at Whittier Rehabilitation Hospital in Westborough made placemats to donate to a local soup kitchen for Thanksgiving. The donation was made to Friendly House Neighborhood Centers in Worcester. They were distributed with food donations for Thanksgiving.
In the photo from left to right are:
patient Tom Krouse, visitor Ken Lane, and patient Arthur Copper.
Whittier Rehabilitation Hospital-Westborough helps at annual ‘Walk to Cure Cancer’
WESTBOROUGH—Staff members from Whittier Rehabilitation Hospital in Westborough and family members once again manned the Survivors’ Tent at the 11th Annual Walk to Cure Cancer, held Sept. 13. The volunteers donated items for and filled the give-away bags for each of the over 200 cancer survivors who visited the tent. They also organized the free raffle.
More than 15,000 participants walked the five-mile loop that began and ended at the UMass Medical School Campus/ Donations are expected to raise $1 million.
Founded by the UMass Medical School and the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, Walk to Cure Cancer has raised close to $6 million in its first decade. The money has raised funds for groundbreaking research, clinical trials and the state-of-theart facilities at UMass Medical School in Worcester.
UMass Medical School’s advances in the treatment of a variety of types of cancer have saved lives, renewed hope and energized walk participants.
Donations can still be made. Call 508-856-5520 and specify that the contribution is for the Walk to Cure Cancer or mail a donation to: Walk to Cure Cancer, 333 South St., Room: 13E-495, Shrewsbury, MA 01545. Or log on to www.walktocurecancer.org and click on Make a donation to make a credit card donation.
Photo: Kim Rotunno, from Whittier Rehabilitation Hospital, Marissa Rotunno, Abby Chaparian and Nancyanne Santora all volunteer in the Survivors’ Tent at the Sept. 13 Walk to Cure Cancer. PHOTO/SUBMITTED
Local Amputees Learn to Adapt and Survive
WESTBOROUGH, Mass. —
Thanks to a $70,000 state-of-the-art prosthetic and a $16,000 paint job, Karl Chapin’s right hand, upon a cursory glance, looks like any other.
And while Chapin’s hand is inconspicuous, it cannot mask everything.
“What can you do about phantom pains?” he asked yesterday during a support group meeting for amputees in Westborough. “Nothing.”
One Vietnam tour with the U.S. Army 40 years ago, Chapin, during a battle with the Vietcong near the infamous Hamburger Hill, picked up a live grenade that had been thrown into a foxhole and jammed it into a corner of the entrenchment.
It exploded.
Chapin, of South Grafton, carried a man to safety out of that foxhole, but lost his right hand in the explosion.
Now he uses one of the world’s first bionic hands: the i-LIMB, made by the Leominster-based Hanger Inc.
Each finger has its own motor.
He’s able to grab things like a styrofoam cup filled with coffee without crushing it. He can shake hands. With past prosthetics, such grabs were challenging.
His cosmetic glove was painstakingly painted to replicate his left hand, down to the veins and palm lines. It took nine hours. Hair was shaved off his left arm and planted in his right forearm for effect.
“It makes me disappear,” said Chapin.
The hand is not a cure-all, however, as Chapin will be the first to point out.
Speaking before the Central Massachusetts Limb Loss Support Group at Whittier Rehabilitation Hospital Saturday morning, Chapin spoke of themes that resonated with those in attendance: Pain, anger and insecurity.
“First thing you got to get over is the anger,” he said. “The tendency to ask ‘Why me?”‘
Chapin said he refused to wear a short-sleeve shirt in public for 15 years after losing his hand.
But Chapin, who scuba-dives, skis and worked for a time as a sky diving instructor, says,”If you can’t adapt to your disability you have a problem.”
It is through the sharing the trials and tribulations of people like Chapin that Rose-Marie Bissonnette, founder and president of the support group, hopes to penetrate the feelings of isolation and depression that too often coccoons amputees.
Those in attendance do not take the simple things in life for granted because in many cases, they cannot. Some are familiar with left-footed gas pedals. Others have to think about how to put on a pair of pants in the morning. Some have difficulty picking up the remote if it falls off the couch. The shower also presents challenges.
Each has a story.
Bissonette’s Chrysler LeBaron slid under a tractor trailer Oct 19, 1996 on Rte. 13 in New Hampshire. By the end of the following January, she lost her left leg below her knee because of the injuries from the crash.
The group, which meets on the fourth Saturday every other month at Whittier Hospital in Westborough, fills a niche, says Bissonnette.
More than 2 million Americans live with limb loss. Annually, 185,000 amputations are performed in the country.
And while there is much in the way of physical rehabilitation available, there is much to be learned through common experience says Bissonnette.
Saturday, a discussion broke out about the importance of not stretching the socks that cover leg stumps, because they fill the space between stump and prosthetic, preventing pressure points and blisters, says Bissonnette.
“I pick up another hint every time I come here,” said quadruple amputee and Franklin resident Debbie Bean.
Bean woke up on Dec. 20, 2006, and could not get out of bed. She was rushed to the hospital.
She had an infection, which turned into blood poisoning, which turned into gangrene. When she awoke from a coma about a month later, both her arms were amputated about 3 inches below her elbow. Her legs were amputated just above the ankles.
The hardest part of everyday living for Bean?
“When you drop something and you can’t pick it up,” she said.
Pat Carmody, a Northborough resident, went out to get the mail one day and fell, breaking his leg in five places and twisting his ankle 70 degrees. Twenty-five operations and a serious infection later, Carmody had part of his right leg amputated.
It was an easy decision: his leg or his life.
Still, for a man who used to run a martial arts program and worked for EMC, making about $70,000 annually, the transition has posed challenges.
Now he can only work part-time and is in constant pain.
“It’s not life threatening but it’s definitely life altering,” he said.
By Dan McDonald, GateHouse News Service
Photo: Marshall Wolff photo/Courtesy MetroWest Daily News