Saunders finds rehab success at Garden Terrace at Overland Park

After a fall at home fractured her right hip and caused a right shoulder injury, Eula Fay Saunders needed rehabilitation.

Saunders was also struggling with atrial fibrillation and an infection. When she arrived at Garden Terrace at Overland Park, Kansas, on April 25, 2018, she was unable to wheel herself in a wheelchair and needed extensive assistance with bathing. She also needed moderate assistance with getting dressed and grooming, as well as bed mobility and standing balance, and she had difficulty with cognition, speaking, understanding speech and swallowing.

Saunders met with physical, occupational and speech therapists five days a week.

Physical therapists used therapeutic exercises, therapeutic activities, neuromuscular re-education and gait training to help Saunders recover strength and improve her mobility, while occupational therapists also used therapeutic activities and exercises, as well as shortwave diathermy, to help her relearn her self-care skills. Speech therapists treated her for her communication and swallowing deficits.

The hard work paid off. On June 13, Saunders returned home with her daughter.

"Fay was so much fun to work with in occupational therapy," said one of her therapists. "She came to us with limited functional use of her right arm, and upon discharge exhibited pain-free, full functional use."