Back in February, Rob Bradford, 49, of Van Wert, slipped and fell on ice at his home. He laid outside on a cold winter night for nearly four hours before being found by his wife.
Bradford was rushed to the hospital suffering from frostbite and hypothermia. His core body temperature had fallen dangerously low and it didn’t look like he would make it.
“It took them two or three hours to even get a temperature reading on me,” Bradford recalls.
Once his temperature as stabilized, Bradford was taken to the intensive care unit of the Lutheran Hospital Burn Center in Fort Wayne. He had frostbite burns on 22-percent of his body, requiring months of treatment.
Nurse makes a difficult time better
From the hospital, he was stepped down to a nursing facility for three weeks before returning home with nursing services ordered from CHP Home Care & Hospice, in Van Wert.
“When I was sent home, the nurse from CHP was here the next day,” Bradford said.
CHP delivered nursing visits twice a week to primarily apply cream and ointment to his burns and change his dressings in accordance with his plan of care, as Bradford continued follow-up visits to the Lutheran Outpatient Burn and Wound Clinic.
“Taylor was my home health nurse and she was incredible to me and my wife,” Bradford said. “My wounds were bad. But, she made a difficult, painful, scary, and lonely time in my life a lot better.”
A caring, personal touch
Nursing care provided in the patient’s home is more private and personal, so the patient and nurse often become closely acquainted.
Over the four months that Bradford received home health care, he and his nurse, Taylor Wright, LPN, became friends.
“I looked forward to her visits and seeing her smiling face – I always felt better when she left,” Bradford said. “She knew when I was having a rough day. You could just tell she cared, and that she knew her job well and she loved doing her job.”
Bradford started walking again in June. At the end of August, he was discharged from home health services; very thankful for the care he received.
“The nursing and support I received [from CHP Home Care & Hospice] was excellent,” Bradford said. “I couldn’t have asked for better care!”
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Photo: Taylor Wright, LPN, and Rob Bradford of Van Wert