Dawn: “They Gave Me a Second Life”

Dawn is a 45-year-old mother who lived at home with her husband and children until suffering a cardiac arrhythmia. Dawn, who had a history of hypertension and significant congestive cardiomyopathy, was found unresponsive in full cardiac arrest. She was intubated and admitted to the ICU of a short-term acute care hospital.

While in the ICU, Dawn suffered another myocardial infarction and was diagnosed with hypoxic encephalopathy. While Dawn’s condition met the criteria for admission to a lower level skilled nursing or subacute facility, her physicians believed that her best option for safe, rapid weaning from the ventilator would be at Kindred Hospital Philadelphia. Her insurance company authorized the admission to Kindred and Dawn arrived at Kindred Hospital Philadelphia on May 4.

Following Kindred’s weaning protocols, Dawn began weaning from the ventilator the day following admission. Her last day on the ventilator was on May 9 and she was fully weaned by May 12.

During Dawn’s stay at Kindred, she was seen by multiple members of Kindred’s interdisciplinary team of doctors, specialists and therapists.

After experiencing a temperature spike, Dawn was seen by a physician specializing in infectious diseases, who ordered appropriate antibiotics.

A physician specializing in wound care also saw Dawn to assess her sacral deep tissue injury. In collaboration with Kindred’s wound care team, he prescribed an appropriate treatment plan for her wound.

In only ten days at Kindred Hospital Philadelphia, the Kindred interdisciplinary team was able to get Dawn stable, successfully weaned her from the ventilator and ready for discharge to a less intense level of care. The case management team worked closely with her family to find a facility near their home and Dawn was discharged to a nursing facility on May 13.

Kindred Hospital Philadelphia’s success is apparent in stories like these as well as in our quality scores – our patients and families rate our quality of care at 91 percent and 90 percent would recommend Kindred.