Teddy: Motivated to Recover

Teddy, 19, lives with his father and mother. He was born with myotonic dystrophy, with mental and physical delays. He loves video games, movies and junk food.

One day Teddy was at home eating lunch when he choked on a hot dog. The hot dog was dislodged but Teddy began to have respiratory complications. He was sent to a short-term acute care hospital where he was treated for aspiration pneumonia.

He was then sent home with oral antibiotics, but a few days later he aspirated again and was readmitted to the short-term acute care hospital.

While there for his second visit, Teddy began to have respiratory distress and a colonic ileus, a condition caused by problems with the muscles and nerves of the intestine. He was unable to communicate with staff or his parents. He was intubated and put on a mechanical ventilator and was started on IV antibiotics and an nasogastric tube for nutrtitional support.

Teddy experienced difficulty in being weaned from the ventilator, so he was transferred to Kindred Hospital Indianapolis South, where he could receive pulmonary rehabilitation, tube feeding, IV antibiotics and physical, occupational and speech therapy.

On his first day at Kindred, Teddy was stabilized by the Kindred pulmonary team and was able to tolerate sitting up in a chair. Though expectations had been that Teddy would most likely have to return home on a chronic home vent, he and Kindred’s pulmonary team surpassed all expectations and he was successfully weaned off the ventilator.

He completed his course of IV antibiotics, and the tube feeding helped him increase his weight from 78 pounds upon admission. He was recommended for continued physical, occupational and speech therapy.

Teddy’s father was continuously at his side and took a leave of absence from work to focus on his son’s recovery. Teddy at times was very discouraged and resistant to participating in therapy. The encouragement from the staff and father was crucial to his improvement.

Motivated by the opportunity to return home, Teddy made large strides in his progress. He was transferred to Regency Place of Greenfield another Kindred facility, and we were able to coordinate care and therapy modalities to assist with his plan of care. Teddy continued with aggressive physical and occupational therapy and was introduced to speech therapy. His doting father was able to return to work with the comfort that his son was enjoying his therapy.

After a few setbacks, Teddy now weighs 96 pounds and is able to tolerate a regular diet with the help of a Passy-Muir valve. He has become a pro at Wii bowling, and all signs point to him returning home soon – without a chronic home vent.

Kindred Hospital Indianapolis South’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 94.4 percent and over 92 percent would recommend Kindred.