Care For Corey
Corey Beattie was a senior at Avon Grove High School and had aspirations of attending culinary school. On October 2, 2010 Corey was the passenger in a horrible car accident in New London, PA. She was hit broad side on her side of the car. The force of the accident left Corey with a global brain trauma, a broken neck at C1, fractured clavicle, multiple pelvic fractures and a fractured right femur.
She was flown from the scene to Christiana Hospital in Newark, DE. After 3 weeks in the ICU and multiple surgeries, Corey’s fractures began to heal and she was considered stable to transfer to Bryn Mawr Rehabilitation Hospital. Corey’s greatest injury was her global brain trauma; a diffused axonal injury. Recovery for this type of injury is very slow. She had intense physical, occupational, speech and cognitive therapy 3 hours a day, 6days a week.
Although she was improving, she was not improving fast enough to stay in the rehab center. Bryn Mawr Rehab must report weekly gains in functional improvement for the Insurance Company to continue to pay for her rehabilitation. Unfortunately, the Insurance Company does not understand that the victims of a Traumatic Brain Injury, especially those with a severe injury, do not make weekly gains. A severe injury can not be compared to the mild and moderate injuries nor should they be held to the statistical national average length of stay in an acute care facility.
The acute inpatient rehabilitation therapy required for a severely injured patient is often denied due to the length of time needed to heal. It is critical that a TBI patient receive intensive therapy the first two years after their injury to re-fire the connections with cognitive therapy in conjunction with Physical, Occupational and Speech therapy to build their strength, develop their ability to have function and mobility of their body. The Acute Care model allows the patient 18 hours per week for rehabilitation. Assuming they have functional improvement they are released to a sub acute or skilled nursing facility (nursing home). A sub acute facility allows 12 hours of therapy weekly, a skilled nursing facility allows 5 hours weekly. Corey was denied admission to 20 skilled nursing facilities due to her age and TBI condition. Corey’s only alternative was to move home. Standard home therapy is considered on par with the skilled nursing facilities; 5 hours per week.
Corey’s fractures have healed. She is holding her head independently for 20 minutes. She has begun to pull her self, with assistance, to a standing position. She has regained mobility on her right side and is displaying cognitive abilities to recognize numbers, letters as well as exhibiting signs of short term and long term memory function. Corey does not vocalize however she is beginning to use sign language.
Although Corey is clinically stable, she still needs the intensive level of therapy. The insurance company has approved 3.5 hours of therapy a week now that she is home. Due to the lack of therapy, Corey has begun to show some regression in the strides she made at Bryn Mawr. As a result of the lack of Physical, Occupational and Speech therapy, Corey is losing muscular strength, has increased foot drop impeding her ability to stand and is showing signs of losing her ability to manage her tongue and throat muscles. She is losing her ability to manage her saliva and has begun to drool.
Corey has a long road ahead of her which will be very costly. Her family is fundraising to hire private therapists to replace what Insurance will not approve. They are also raising funds to purchase the Physical therapy tools and machines that will assist Corey to regain her strength to stand and eventually walk again. Corey’s family can not financially provide for the therapy Insurance has denied her. Their goal is to raise money to purchase the therapy tools and expertise that will assure Corey the optimum opportunity to regain the life she once dreamed of. Your assistance is greatly appreciated!
