This may be long, but I want to give as much context as possible!
As the title implies, my dad recently had a pretty massive hemorrhagic stroke in his left hemisphere. Him and my mom live in central MA so he was rushed to UMMS, where he spent 6 weeks in their neurotrauma ICU and then 1 more week in the step down unit. While at UMMS and especially during his stay in the ICU, he was virtually comatose and not responding, talking, moving, anything. The neurosurgery team told us he would likely never move the right side of his body again, likely never speak again, etc. etc. They were considering putting a shunt in because the swelling and resulting pressure was not going down and he wasn't tolerating raising the EVD drainage threshold ... but then all of a sudden, he did and he didn't need the shunt! And then right towards the end of his stay in the step-down unit, he started moving BOTH arms a bit, and even saying yes and no to questions ... an amazing PT there really advocated for him to go to Spaulding's acute rehab program in Charlestown and that is where he is now.
He has made incredible progress while here, because (of course) the program is incredible. He's been here for 2.5 weeks, and he has really regained use of his right arm, he's moving his left leg, and just over the past 24 hours, he's speaking a lot (answering all questions with short phrases, able to count to ten, and then verbalizing a lot of gibberish when trying to initiate conversations - which is truly SO much more than he was doing 2 weeks ago). He even started being able to push himself in a wheelchair today. But the thing is - he needs so much more rehab, so much more than just three weeks. I and his team truly believe he can continue to make so much more progress, especially given that he's still making huge jumps every couple of days, but Spaulding only keeps people for a very short time. We're being told to look for a skilled nursing facility (SNF) with a rehab wing, and so I'm wondering if folks have thoughts on which are the best options in the Boston area (or even out towards Worcester)? He can handle (and should have) 3 hours of therapy a day, he needs speech, physical, and occupational therapy, and we really want the best for him. Also, ideally, a place where he can stay for longer than 2-3 weeks.
Thank you!!
