CANTON – As a retired nurse and someone
who spent most of her adult life working in health care, RoseMary Crupi, of
Canton knows a thing or two about quality health care, and she said that’s
exactly what she received at Maplewood Health Care & Rehabilitation Center.
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| RoseMary Crupi |
In 2016 Ms. Crupi had her right knee
replaced. She spent two weeks in the rehab unit and continued with outpatient
physical therapy for “several months.”
After recovering fully from that surgery,
she then had, in 2017, her right hip replaced spending five more weeks in the
rehab unit.
“If someone asked me for an opinion, I
would say, “go there,’” she said. “They were not only competent, but they were
kind and caring. They impressed me with their kindness and empathy. A lot of
people who work in health care don’t always do that.”
Admittedly Ms. Crupi can get emotional at
times, but she said through her whole time at Maplewood, she was never made to
feel embarrassed or like she was in the wrong.
“I’m a bit of a wuss but whenever I would
cry from the pain someone would be right there,” she said, mentioning
specifically physical therapy assistants Jenna Cryderman and Stacie Jessmer, as
well as physical therapists Brittany Wieszczyk and Elizabeth Foster.
Ms. Crupi’s second stay at Maplewood
included some medical complications, which she said weren’t anyone’s fault.
“You know your own body better than anyone
and when I told them something wasn’t right, they listened,” she said,
surmising that may not always be the case elsewhere.
“When a patient says this is not normal
and there is something wrong, people need to listen and they did,” she said.
In addition to being pleased with the
therapy staff, Ms. Crupi said the nursing care she received during her two
stays was also impressive.
“I met some really terrific aides,” she
said. “There was one young woman, “Trish” (Patricia Kerr) who would literally
give you the shirt off your back. What she does for patients is amazing.”
Ms. Crupi then talked about the Nancy
Delorme, a nurse who worked day shifts on the rehab unit.
“On my discharge day I wasn’t able to walk
as well as I would have liked and when the ambulette came to pick me up they
only brought one guy,” she recalled, realizing she was going to need the
assistance of two people to get out of the vehicle and into her home.
“I didn’t think I was going to be able to
go home and I started to cry,” she said. “Nancy very calmly told me, ‘Hold on,
I’ll take care of this.’ She then went and grabbed Curtis (Legault). He’s one
of the maintenance guys now, but he used to be a CNA. They made sure I was able
to go home that day and he made sure I was able to get settled at home.”
Looking back at her own career, Ms. Crupi
said the staff at Maplewood acted just as she would have wanted her own
employees too.
“I used to train LPNs and I always taught
them to act as if the person in that bed was their own mother or father,” she
said. “The staff there cares about you as a person and not just a room number
and that matters.”
For more information on therapy services
at Maplewood, contact (315) 386-451. For therapy services at RiverLedge Health
Care & Rehabilitation Center in Ogdensburg, contact (315) 393-0730. You may
also like United Helpers on Facebook or visit www.unitedhelpers.org.
