Brandi: An Amazing Rehabilitation

Brandi, 19, was working part time, going to college part time and was very involved with her church youth group. She had just been diagnosed with bipolar depression and seizure disorder, having experienced some deep depression earlier in the year. On March 11, she was riding with her boyfriend on the back of his motorcycle on their way to church when a car entered from a side road and struck them.

Brandi was thrown 50 feet through the air and along with her boyfriend, sustained multiple injuries including head trauma. She was flown by med-evac helicopter to a regional trauma

Hospital. She arrived comatose with multiple brain injuries that included a subarachnoid hemorrhage and intraventricular hemorrhage. Brandi was placed on mechanical ventilation, and shunts were inserted into her skull to relieve cranial pressure. Ten days later, she received a tracheostomy, later to develop MRSA pneumonia and a staph sepsis. An MRI showed brainstem damage and the neurologist rated her prognosis as poor. Brandi’s famliy remained prayerful and hopeful for recovery.

On March 22, Brandi was transferred to Kindred Hospital Ontario for specializes continued care. She was comatose with MRSA pneumonia, staph bacteremia and a central nervous system infection. Kindred’s interdisciplinary team developed a treatment plan including aggressive antibiotic therapy for the multiple resistant infections, respiratory therapy, nutritional therapy and rehabilitation therapy.

Within a week of admission, Brandi started to come out of her comatose state, demonstrating various stages of progression including agitation, depression, lethargy, combativeness, and awareness. She had regressed mentally to the cognition of a toddler, but her family remained hopeful and positive. Brandy began rehabilitation to increase her muscle strength and soon, with assistance, she began to walk. A speech-language pathologist worked with cognitive stimulation therapy and an occupational therapist worked with her on activities of daily living.

On June 7, Brandi was discharged from Kindred Hospital Ontario to an acute rehabilitation facility for continued therapy. She left fully aware, although she was still limited cognitively.

 Since her discharge, Brandi has come back to visit Kindred Hospital twice. She has regained much of her cognitive function and has passed two college classes! She also got married about a year and a half after her accident. Brandy has voiced her appreciation to the staff and physicians of Kindred Hospital Ontario, and her mom is writing a book about her experiences to encourage those going through the same type of trauma.

Kindred Hospital Ontario’s success is apparent in stories like these as well as in our quality scores – our patients and families rate our quality of care at over 95% and 98.8% would recommend Kindred.