Following a fall down her stairs at home, Jan was admitted to hospital with a severe, life-altering spinal cord injury, leaving the comfort of her home behind. We worked closely with all the professionals involved in Jan’s care to create a bespoke package of care that would get her back home with the clinical care she requires, in time for Christmas.
We first met Jan in October 2024, when the Cheshire & Merseyside Integrated Care Board (ICB) reached out to us. They inquired about our capacity to support Jan’s discharge home from the Northwest Regional Spinal Injuries Centre, where she had been admitted earlier in the year.
From our initial meeting, we could sense Jan had such a positive outlook on life. She didn’t dwell on her injury, she was upbeat, fun and a joy to be around.
Jan lives at home with her husband. They have a daughter who has now left home, who visits regularly with her pet dog.
After enjoying a variety of job roles over the years, including traveling the world as an air hostess and playing vital roles within companies as a business manager, Jan is now retired.
She has many great friends surrounding her who come and visit her regularly. They enjoy shopping trips, gardening, going out for brunch and having a prosecco together, which she was very much looking forward to getting back to.
Jan was at home when she fell down the stairs in March 2024 and was immediately unable to get up. Initially admitted to her local hospital, she was later transferred to the Royal Stoke Hospital due to a deterioration in her neurology. She underwent surgery to fix a dislocated C6/7 vertebra and remove a damaged disc in her neck, followed by surgery to fuse the vertebral bones together.
Once Jan was deemed medically stable, she was transferred to the specialist Regional Spinal Injuries Centre for comprehensive rehabilitation in May 2024. It was there that Jan was diagnosed with C6 ASI-B incomplete spinal cord injury. She had suffered partial damage to her spinal cord at the C6 cervical vertebra in her neck. Jan had some feeling below the injury site but, unfortunately, no motor function was preserved.
At home, Jan requires ongoing assistance with eating and drinking, movement and repositioning, passive movement, Postural Hypotension and Autonomic Dysreflexia management, tissue viability management, nebuliser therapy and breathing support, Manual Cough Assist, bowel and catheter care (including Digital Simulation and bladder washout), temperature regulation, personal care, and medication administration.
She also needs help accessing her community and careful monitoring throughout the night while she sleeps.
Support for Jan was awarded to Apollo on 19th November 2024, which gave us just one month to ensure she was discharged safely home in time for Christmas.
Following, initial discussions with Jan about her personal preferences around care staff requirements, we immediately arranged meet and greets with some of our talent pool of local care professionals who all had the experience and skills required to care for Jan’s individual clinical, personal, and social care needs.
Every member of our team that we introduced to her was successful, and we feel this was due to her very positive nature and eagerness to return home.
Our care team attended hospital-led specialist training in Jan’s spinal injury. Jan was present and participated in the training and this was a great way for them to really get to know one another.
With the goal of getting Jan home in time for Christmas, we collaborated with all the professionals involved in her care, including the District Nursing Team and specialist Occupational Therapists, as well as sourcing specialist equipment.
Jan returned safely home at around 6pm on Friday 20th December 2024, where she is settling back into a new way of life and is doing well.
