Keith: Beating the Odds

Keith is a paramedic who was working at the Long Beach Grand Prix. He hopped onto a golf cart and lost his footing as the cart took off. He fell backwards, hitting his head, and was rushed to a short-term acute care hospital with a cerebral hemorrhage.

After a three-hour surgery, Keith recovered in the hospital’s ICU for two weeks. So that his brain could fully recover, he was placed in a drug-induced coma, on a trach and a ventilator.

At the end of his stay in the short-term hospital, Keith required extended recovery time. He was transferred to Kindred Hospital San Gabriel Valley for continued care.

The interdisciplinary team’s first goal was to wean Keith from his ventilator and trach. After this was accomplished the rehabilitation team worked with Keith to help him regain his ability to speak and to swallow. The physical therapists worked with Keith and little by little he progressed to walking with a walker and then walking unassisted. A medical specialist had predicted that Keith would never walk or talk again. Keith, with the help of his rehabilitation team, was proving him wrong.

After a month at Kindred, Keith was transferred to an acute rehabilitation facility. He had regained the ability to eat solid food, walk and talk. He underwent more surgery and still requires some outpatient rehabilitation therapy but he is able to do the things he loves – watching the Oakland Raiders play football and spending time with his wife and 11-year-old daughter.

Four months after his accident, Keith had recovered to the point that most experts predicted would take a year. Against all odds, and with the help of the interdisciplinary team at Kindred Hospital San Gabriel Valley, Keith has had a recovery that some describe as a miracle.

Kindred Hospital San Gabriel Valley’s success is apparent in stories like this as well as in our quality scores – our patients and families rate our quality of care at over 91 percent and 99.6 percent would recommend Kindred.