Recovery after life changing illness
Our Case: My father, aged 87, suffered several serious illnesses at home, including gout in his knee, a chest infection, delirium and ongoing dementia. These led to a hospital stay of three and a half months. During this time, he lost his independence and mobility, required a catheter, lost bowel control, and was initially fed via an NG tube before later receiving a PEG tube shortly before discharge.
When discharged, he was bedbound with minimal movement and weak breathing. Attempts at physiotherapy in hospital often caused significant drops in blood pressure, requiring intervention.
Following family recommendations, we began a personalised physiotherapy programme with Joe from My Neuro Rehab. He tailored sessions to my father’s condition, balancing short- and long-term goals while adapting to fluctuating health and energy levels.
We currently have two sessions per week. My father began with basic bed exercises, progressing to breathing work and learning how to sit safely on the edge of the bed. These exercises also improved his carers’ ability to assist with personal care.
Joe later arranged a joint session with a community physiotherapist. Despite a previously poor prognosis, my father was able to stand and transfer to a chair with 30–40% assistance, demonstrating clear progress.
Joe’s programme was adopted by the community team, helping achieve key goals: independent positioning, sitting, standing, and transfers with minimal assistance. His breathing exercises have significantly improved lung capacity, enabling my father to sit out of bed for up to four hours.
Upper-body work has also reduced aspiration risk and strengthened swallowing. With Speech and Language Therapy support, my father progressed from no oral intake to safely drinking water and eating small amounts of yoghurt—an important milestone after earlier failed swallowing trials in hospital.
Joe’s communication and awareness of my father’s limits ensure sessions remain safe yet challenging. His exercises also address weight imbalance and posture. My father now genuinely looks forward to sessions.
Joe provides guidance between visits, ensuring exercises remain safe and achievable. We believe this will support continued progress toward long-term goals, including improved mobility, stamina, balance, and greater independence.
After five months, it is clear that without Joe’s holistic approach, my father would likely remain bedbound.
Joe has also worked closely with the community rehabilitation team, helping align goals and improve continuity of care. Initially, there was a disconnect between services, but Joe helped bridge this gap. We are now at the end of the community programme, with plans for a future referral when further personal step change progress is made.
We would also like to express our sincere gratitude to Joe and the team at My Neuro Rehab for the exceptional care, dedication, and professionalism they have shown throughout my father’s rehabilitation journey. Joe’s expertise, patience, encouragement and belief in my father’s potential have made a life-changing difference not only to my father, but to our entire family. His compassionate and comprehensive approach has given us hope during an incredibly difficult period and has helped my father achieve progress that at one stage seemed impossible. We are deeply thankful for the ongoing support, guidance, and commitment shown by Joe and My Neuro Rehab, and we would wholeheartedly recommend their services to anyone who is need of physiotherapy support whether targeted short-term or multi challenging long-term.