Determined To Get Better, Making it All Work at Deptford Center

This is a great example of how rehabilitation fully works together with professional therapists and a determined resident whose goal is to get better.

68-year-old Richard Cole from Montague, New Jersey, was admitted last August of 2023 to Deptford Center, the large 240-bed skilled nursing facility on Clements Bridge Road in Deptford, New Jersey for three disciplines of rehabilitation including physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy. The always positive and hard-working Mr. Cole had arrived first at an acute care hospital complaining of bilateral upper and lower extremity weakness, tingling, and numbness. Diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), which, according to the World Health Organization, is a two to four weeks rare condition in which a person's immune system attacks the peripheral nerves, Mr. Cole had to be intubated due to respiratory distress.

When arriving at Deptford Center, he arrived with a trach and percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) feeding tube and was fully dependent on all care. For his four and a half months at Deptford Center, Mr. Cole was fully determined to work hard, meet his goals to get better, and go home. That he did, proving it’s all about two sides working, a solid team of therapists together with a positive strongminded resident who wants to same thing as the therapists, to get better and go home.

"My therapy was awesome,” said Mr. Cole, before his discharge. “Everyone was nice, supportive, knowledgeable, and were the reasons I got back on my feet.”

Along with this positive way of thinking, therapists took Richard under their wing to help him meet his goals. He did and before his January 1, 2024 discharge, Mr. Cole was no longer relying on a trach or peg tube, he is tolerating a regular texture diet and liquids, and was ready for his happy discharge home, together with his great supportive family and friends.

“The Deptford Center therapy team is so proud of Mr. Cole,” said Caleigh Andrews, Director of Rehabilitation, Deptford Center. "It has been great watching Mr. Cole make such impressive progress throughout his time here. We are very excited for him to be able to return home. Congrats Mr. Cole! We wish you the best of luck.”