After nine months of specialized care in various hospitals following a heart attack and stroke, Jay Holsen, 65, and his family were excited to be leaving Northwestern Memorial for rehabilitation closer to their Quad Cities home. But his wife, Ann, felt overwhelmed about how to coordinate the logistics of his release. Along with her cognitively challenged daughter, Kate, she would somehow need to assist with Jay’s discharge, go with Kate to their car, then meet up with the ambulance that would transport her husband so she could follow. A caregiver put her in touch with Patient Representatives, where she had a chance encounter with manager Erma Clark. “As I walked in the door,” Ann recalled, “Erma was standing there with some papers, ready to take off. But she stopped and listened to me. My husband’s recovery has been stressful and frightening at times and to have someone drop everything to make all of this work meant the world to me. She was so kind. I thought, you have no idea what a difference you have made."
Related Links: Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute | Webcast: What you need to know about stroke
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With Erma alongside, Ann and Kate were able to manage Jay’s release with confidence. “It was a good sendoff,” Ann said.
“Despite the terrible part of an illness,” Ann said, “isn’t it funny how you meet so many wonderful people — the doctors, the nurses and the others who help? That’s the positive in all of this.”
Kate, who stayed with her mother in Chicago through most of the hospitalization, gave her father a goodbye kiss as they prepared for his release.
“Erma helped me feel very comfortable about going home,” Ann said. “I was nervous, still, about driving in Chicago traffic, but not nearly as nervous as I would have been.”
In the hospital driveway, Ann met up with the ambulance carrying her husband and she was able to follow the vehicle for the 3½ hour journey home.
