Shirley's story
On Palm Sunday, a fall forced Shirley York to take a break from helping people.
That day, she’d expected to play Easter Bunny. She planned to fill baskets that morning with the treats she bought her friends. She’d gotten up before dawn, had switched off her bedroom light and was reaching for the hall light when she lost her balance.
Shirley fell into the wall and felt a sharp pain in her shoulder.
Mornings like Palm Sunday – Easter Bunny work, not the fall -- had become par for Shirley’s course this time of year. At 90, she’d developed a love of doing unto others – from holiday gifts to the cards she mails to friends to helping her take care of her kids and grandkids. She’d been a secretary and a baker for a time, but she’d spent most of her life taking care of her family.
Fortunately, she could reach her phone and dialed 911, and an ambulance rushed her from her home in Mechanicsburg to UPMC West Shore Hospital.
X-rays revealed a fracture of her right arm and hip. Doctors installed pins to hold the hip together and put her arm in a sling. She needed help walking, and even that was difficult because her helpers couldn’t hold her right hand because of the broken arm. It was difficult to stand. Little things like getting dressed or brushing her teeth seemed like impossible feats. “I was unable to do anything for myself,” she said. “Literally.”
Once she was medically stable, her doctors suggested rehab. At first Shirley was skeptical. What did that mean? Would she have to drive a million miles from home and stay in another hospital just to be able to learn to live independently again?
Then, Shirley’s luck took a turn for the better. She discovered she didn’t have to worry about crossing the Susquehanna River or head west to Carlisle to get her life back. Expert care was available in the same building just a couple of floors up.
Helen M. Simpson Rehabilitation Hospital – West Shore had opened a brand new branch at the UPMC West Shore Hospital. The new, 20-bed facility began accepting patients just a few days earlier.
“It was convenient and they provided the acute therapy that I would need to return home,” Shirley said. “Good continuity of care. It was easy to transition from downstairs to the rehab upstairs.”
Now all Shirley had left to do was the hard work of getting better. When she arrived on the hospital’s fifth floor and saw the yawning windows offering bright sunshine and views of the rolling, central Pennsylvania countryside, her worries began to fade.
“Everything has been bright and cheery and people were smiling and pleasant,” she said. Her therapists – both physical and occupational – at first helped her focus on standing up. From a bed, from a chair, from a therapy table and even from a piece of equipment designed to look like a car – Shirley practiced getting in and out.
Walking was a big problem at the start. Her physical therapist offered her a specialized walker, and at first she was very tentative. She could only eke out a few steps.
However, as she spent time working on strengthening exercises for her legs with resistance bands and weights, the number of steps began to increase.
She was anxious to sleep in her own bed but worried she’d be unable to climb in or out. To ease her mind, her therapists provided her a strategy – a stepping stool to ease the climb and a bed rail to hold her weight. Before long, Shirley could get in and out of bed on her own with confidence.
Her occupational therapists also introduced Shirley to the hospital’s Activities of Daily Living suite – rooms appointed like a home, complete with bedroom, kitchen and bathroom. Here, she learned to navigate her sling and the lack of mobility in her arm. She learned to brush her teeth, move around the kitchen, open cabinets and prepare meals. Practice helped her learn balance.
The occupational therapist also worked with Shirley in the gym to improve her strength and range of motion through various exercises. Steadily she made gains.
Shirley’s daughter, Debbie, was there to help her learn – and also gained an understanding of the adaptive equipment and strategies Shirley would use when she went home.
And in two weeks’ time, Shirley was ready to leave. She could walk up to 200 feet using her walker, had strategies for dressing herself and living independently.
Back at home, Shirley continues to receive help from home health nursing along with physical and occupational therapy.
“I can walk better. My balance is better. I’ve learned how to dress myself a different way,” she said. “I’m elated. I am amazed that I was able to do what I have done.”
But she couldn’t have done it if the helper tables hadn’t turned. During her time in therapy, all the folks to whom Shirley sends cards and Easter baskets reached out. Cards, food and flowers poured in.
“Without everyone’s support, it would have been a lot more difficult to recover,” she said.