Concierge: Dimitry Schwartz
Patient’s Age: 68-years-old
Initial Admission Date: 8/2/2021
Admitted From: Stony Brook Hospital
Therapy Discharge Date: 9/3/2021
Reason for Stay: Metabolic encephalopathy secondary to urinary tract infection.

Details of Experience:

Gulzer Begum was brought to the ER by her family for weakness and inability to stand from a sitting position. The medical team at Stony Brook hospital ran a number of tests and diagnosed that Gulzer was experiencing metabolic encephalopathy, a chemical imbalance in the brain. The culprit of this illness was a urinary tract infection, which was treated. After Gulzer was stabilized in the hospital, she was left with weakness, inability to ambulate or perform activities of daily living. The case management team recommended that Gulzer participates in short-term rehab. The Begum family did some research and decided to come to the Hamlet Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center for therapy.

Gulzar was to receive physical and occupational therapy six times per week as part of the intense therapy to get her back to optimal health. Upon arrival at the rehab center, Mrs. Begum was greeted by reception, the nursing department, and admissions. She was escorted to her lovely room, and her family (son and husband) was provided with extensive information about their mom’s treatment plan. Upon admission, Mrs. Begum was very limited in mobility; she required total assistance moving around in bed, moving from sitting to standing, inability to ambulate, total dependence for transferring herself in and out of a car. She required moderate assistance setting up her meals, maximum assistance with performing self-grooming and hygiene tasks, and self-dressing, total dependence for bathing, toileting. Overall it can be said that she had a lot of rehabs to do and improve.

During Mrs. Begum’s stay, she was often visited by her family to receive encouragement during therapy. This was most beneficial and encouraged by the Hamlet interdisciplinary team to optimize results. After a month of treatment, Gulzer progressed nicely before her discharge.

Her therapy results include improved mobility getting in and out of bed, minimum assistance needed getting up out of bed – a big improvement from total dependence prior—the ability to ambulate independently up to 30 feet, an improvement from zero when she first was admitted. Gulzer also drastically improved activities of daily living; she was too self-grooming, bathing, and feeding independently. Toileting still required minimum assistance, but still an improvement from total dependence on help. The Begum family was pleased with her results and planned to continue even further progress at home.

The Hamlet team is thrilled to be a part of your recovery journey Gulzer; we wish you all the best!

Concierge: Dimitry Schwartz
Patient’s Age: 40-years-old
Initial Admission Date: 4/23/2021
Admitted From: Stony Brook Hospital
Therapy Discharge Date: 9/06/2021
Reason for Stay: Chronic Respiratory Failure, Severe Morbid Obesity, Hypertension, Diabetes. 

Details of Experience:
Derry was living with his brother before being hospitalized. He began to experience continuous shortness of breath at home and decided to check himself into Stony Brook ER. He was quickly assessed, and it was determined that his situation was rather difficult. Derry was placed into an induced coma for a month and required over three months of acute care. When Derry was ready to be discharged from the hospital, he needed additional subacute care. He discussed his options with case management and decided on the Hamlet Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center.

Derry was greeted on arrival by Hamlet’s amazing interdisciplinary team, including the nursing team, social work, reception, and others. Derry’s positive attitude was infectious. Derry was determined to improve. He arrived with a lot of medical complexities, including a tracheostomy collar (a mechanism to provide optimal oxygen airflow). He also had left-side weakness and an inability to walk. Derry’s medical case was also compounded by his weight status, as he was morbidly obese. Needless to say, Derry and Hamlet had work to do.

The dietary, nursing, and rehab team got to work at a fast pace on Derry’s medical, nutritional and rehabilitative therapy. Hamlet’s dietitian began to work with Derry on weight management strategies and personalized therapeutic diets that would promote weight loss. Derry was provided nutrition education and guidance on how to keep his weight down when he left the community. The rehab focused on many aspects of improvement for Derry, including improved bed mobility, transferring out of various places, including beds, cars, etc., all while maintaining optimal oxygen levels. Ambulation on uneven and even surfaces. Something to note of significant improvement in ambulation. Derry’s ability to ambulate on admission was 0 feet. After the conclusion of rehab therapy, Derry was able to ambulate over 200 feet independently. That is amazing!

Derry’s progress and improvements were his daily drivers. His round-the-clock positive attitude contributed greatly to his improvement. Derry is stronger, lighter, and has had a few new friends since he came to the Hamlet. He is excited about his future and is looking forward to resuming his life of independence and better health. 

The Hamlet team is thrilled with all of your success Derry, and I hope you only continue to grow, improve and be healthy!

Director Concierge/Assistant Administrator: Dimitry Schwartz
Patient’s Age: 69-years-old
Initial Admission Date: 6/7/2021
Admitted From: Long Island Community Hospital
Discharge Date: 7/20/2021
Reason for Stay: COVID-19 Rehab, End-stage renal disease secondary from complications of COVID, Hypertension. 

Details of Experience:
Adrienne was diagnosed with COVID19 in November of 2020. Unfortunately, her health declined quickly, which led to her hospitalization. She was placed on a ventilator and received artificial nutrition and hydration via percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG tube). Adrienne’s case is an example of how severe COVID19 can be. She has been placed on dialysis, as well, as COVID damaged her kidneys. Despite all of these challenges, Adrienne maintained a positive spirit and was determined to recover. After she was ready to receive subacute care, Adrienne chose Hamlet Rehab because of all the positive reviews she had heard.

Upon arrival, he was greeted by Hamlet’s fantastic interdisciplinary team, including nursing, reception, and other team members. Adrienne was weak and required extensive rehabilitation to help her regain the ability to ambulate safely, perform bed mobility, getting up, overall coordination, and range of motion. Adrienne was always having difficulty performing activities of daily living such as self-bathing, grooming, toileting, and dressing. The fantastic Rehabilitation team at Hamlet was up to the challenge. The physical and occupational therapists worked extensively with Adrienne. In 6 weeks, the team was able to achieve outstanding results. Adrienne was able to regain her independence with daily activities, as well as walking. Adrienne also mentioned that it was the ability to connect with her husband daily that got her through many tough days. The hamlet team ensured that Adrienne could see her husband through personal and virtual visits as many times as possible. 

The Hamlet team recently connected with Adrienne. She was happy to say that she is continuing to improve and maintain a positive perspective. Our team was thrilled and honored to help you, Adrienne!

Director Concierge/Assistant Administrator: Dimitry Schwartz
Patient’s Age: 45-years-old
Initial Admission Date: 4/9/21
Admitted From: St. Francis Hospital
Discharge Date: 5/14/2021
Reason for Stay: Cervicalgia, history of spinal disc herniations, generalized weakness, falls at home

Details of Experience:
George’s issues began when he was playing college basketball. He had experienced a lumbar disc herniation, which required surgical intervention. Shortly after that, the disc below required surgery, as well. Since then, he has had problems with his lower back and experienced more herniations that led to cervical spine surgery.  About three weeks before his hospitalization, he fell while walking down the stairs and fell on his back. Since then, he has had progressive weakness and numbness on this right side. That is when he decided to check himself into St. Francis Hospital. The medical team at the hospital recommended that George would benefit from short-term rehabilitation. On April 9, George came to the Hamlet for physical and occupational therapeutic rehabilitation.  

Upon arrival, he was greeted by Hamlet’s fantastic interdisciplinary team, including social work, nursing, and reception.  George has shared that he had years of back problems, including spinal fusion surgeries and spinal disc herniations that caused lower body weakness. He had been troubled by these issues for over 20 years.  The Hamlet rehab team wasted no time and got to work with George.  Occupational therapy set goals to improve upper and lower body mobility when bathing, improve mobility when providing self-hygiene and grooming, improve lower body dressing, improve toilet transfers.  All of these functions were significantly improved from the need for moderate assistance to standby assistance.  Physical therapy had also set very exciting goals.  They improved Mr. Cahill’s ambulation abilities, bed mobility, functional transfers, stabilized gait patterns.  Overall, George improved significantly and was excited to return home with improved independence. During his leisure time, when he was not doing rehab, he enjoyed chatting with the staff, watching TV, sports betting on his phone, and watching his favorite shows. 

Hamlet would like to thank George for choosing the rehabilitation journey with us.  We wish you health and happiness.

Orthopedic Rehabilitation Following Blood Flow to Legs

Director Concierge/Assistant Administrator: Dimitry Schwartz
Case Study: Jesse Giambrone
Patient’s Age: 73-years-old
Initial Admission Date: 2/26/21
Admitted From: St Catherine of Siena Medical Center
Discharge Date: 3/22/2021
Reason for Stay: Limb Ischemia, Left-Mid Posterior Tibial Artery Bypass

Details of Experience:
On February 22nd, 2021, Jesse was experiencing numbness and cramps in his left leg, which caused difficulty walking. Jesse went to the hospital to figure out what was causing these issues. After a medical assessment, the doctor determined that the weakness was likely related to poor blood circulation and recommended an operation to improve blood flow in the left leg area. After the successful surgery, the medical team at the hospital suggested that Jesse follows up with short-term rehab to maximize recovery. With the assistance of the hospital social worker and his family, Jesse chose to come to The Hamlet.

Upon admission to Hamlet Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center, Jesse was welcomed by our fantastic receptionist and nursing team. Shortly after, the rest of the interdisciplinary team was acquainted with Jesse. The day following his admission, Jesse was evaluated by physical therapy. During the initial assessment, Jesse presented with weakness in his leg and decreased mobility. He required moderate assistance to roll side to side in his bed when needing to move around. He also required considerable assistance to roll over from prone position to supine, sitting up from laying down, and standing up. While standing, he needed total assistance with pivoting and car transfers. He was not able to ambulate. During his stay, the rehab team worked diligently with Jesse using graded therapeutic exercises, open and closed chain kinetics, hip abduction exercises with graded resistance.

After nearly a month of therapy, Jesse progressed nicely. He no longer required assistance to roll from front to back while in bed. He could get up and lay down in bed independently, do car transfers with just contact guard assistance, ambulate 20 feet, and go up and down two stairs (and increase from 0). Overall, Jesse regained considerable strength back in his legs and returned to a similar independence level before his hospitalization.

While Jesse was not in therapy, he would enjoy leisure activities like watching TV and using his phone. Jesse said that he enjoyed his rehab process very much and was thankful for the Hamlet team for getting him back on his feet.

Thank you for choosing The Hamlet!