Care Away from Home
One of the reasons Grand View Health is a top-tier healing place is because of our incredibly dedicated and caring staff and volunteers. One of those volunteers is Agnes*.
No one ever guesses that she’s 89 years old – she’s often described as the Energizer Bunny.
On an otherwise normal day in September, Agnes had a misstep while descending the stairs in her home. When a family member found her at the bottom of the steps, they immediately called 911 and the Grand View Health ambulance arrived. Agnes figured it would be a short ride to the familiar place where she spent so many fulfilling volunteer hours.
Yet Agnes’s fall, combined with her age, made her injuries a trauma case, and the ambulance drivers were required to take her to the nearest Level I or II trauma facility. She was crestfallen to realize she’d be in a faraway and strange place, not knowing her care team and worried how her family members might visit her while she was there.
Fortunately, Agnes returned back home to recover with the help of Grand View physical therapy and primary care. But her case brings home the importance of upgrading our facilities to provide the care our community needs so that Agnes and so many of our neighbors can get the care they need in familiar and comforting surroundings. A local trauma center in our community will mean everything is a short ride away.
*Name changed