Patients Age: 71-years-old
Admission Date: 11/16/2018
Admitted From: Westside Regional
Discharge Date: TBD
Discharged To: TBD
Length of Stay: TBD
Reason for Stay: Intracerebral Hemorrhage
How did this patient hear about The Encore: A friend who knew about The Encore told patients sister.

Details of experience:
When Mrs. Irene Fiorella entered our community from Nursing Center from the Westside Regional Medical Center with a PEG (Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy), she was unable to eat anything, and speech she was barely responsive, completely non-vocal, unable to follow

simple directions such as being asked to blink and was only able to answer yes and no questions with a very minimal nod and headshake.

Her speech therapist decided to try a different method. She brought in a cold moist spoon and did cold oral sensory stimulation (placed the spoon on Irene’s tongue). This initiated Irene’s first real response. Her swallow was delayed and weak, but this became the primary focus as it was something to expand on due to it being her strongest response. When asked if she wanted to do it again, Irene suddenly had a much stronger nod.

As time moved along, the swallowing stayed more consistent although Irene had some difficulties staying awake and had trouble with single unit questions.

About a week later, she began talking. She was answering two-unit questions which shortly progressed to multiple unit questions! Everything began progressing for the better very quickly which led to Irene and her family telling people how grateful they are for her therapists and her.

Only a few days later, Irene was able to name objects in the environment, answer W.H. questions (who what when where), and count the days of the week and the months of the year. Her cold oral sensory stimulation also escalated to 100% on swallowing. This began a new journey… foods and liquids! At the end of the week, Irene was tolerating drops of water!

The next week Irene’s therapist started testing minimal amounts of thin water and was successful! This led to trials of mechanical soft food which was a success, leading her to regular food and that was successful as well! Her swallowing was strong! Irene can eat regular foods again, completely opposite of the conditions she was in upon arriving at The Encore!

Irene shared her whole story with the concierge director while enjoying a tuna fish sandwich that The Encore had served for lunch that day! We wish Irene many more years of health and hope she enjoys all the delicious foods out there that she now can continue to experience.