After suffering several fractures in a fall, Cathy Moore needed the expert trauma and rehabilitation care available at Regional One Health.
As a Regional One Health employee, she knew her colleagues treated patients with skill and compassion – and that’s exactly what she received as a patient.
Now, Cathy is back to work and doing the things she loves, and she wants others to know about the exceptional care available at Regional One Health.
After over 22 years with Regional One Health’s pharmacy team, Cathy Moore, DPh, is very familiar with the professionalism, expertise, and caring her colleagues bring to their jobs.
Now that she has experienced that as a patient as well, she wants to tell others about the exceptional care available at Regional One Health. “I don’t think anybody else could have done the job that Regional One Health did getting me back on my feet,” Cathy said. “I could not have asked for any better care than what I got through the whole ordeal.”
It all started when Cathy was on a trip to Brownsville, Tennessee, with friends this July.
“I started out in an old pharmacy with an old-fashioned soda fountain with the syrup and carbonated water…the whole nine yards. A group of girlfriends was going up to Brownsville, and I just had to go and try the old-fashioned soda fountain there,” Cathy said.
It turned out the soda fountain was no more, but the group enjoyed some excellent burgers and fries before heading on their way. That’s when a fun outing took a turn for the worse.
“We’d had to park about a block away, and as we were about to cross the street, I was watching the traffic. I wasn’t watching my feet,” Cathy said.
There was a speedbump in the wrong place, and it happened to be right where Cathy was about to step. “I stepped off the curb, just one step, and went sliding across on my left side,” she said. “My friends were trying to help me up, but it hurt too badly for me to get up.”
They called an ambulance, which took her to an emergency room in Jackson, where she was treated for three pelvic fractures and three metatarsal fractures. “They wanted me to go into their rehab unit, but I said, ‘My support system is at home,’” Cathy said.
An ambulance took her home to Bartlett, and paramedics helped her into her house and into bed. Unable to move and in terrible pain, Cathy knew she wasn’t going to be able to recover at home.
“I knew I was badly injured. I said, ‘OK, this is trauma, I need to go to Regional One Health. My daughter called another ambulance to take me there,” she said.
Cathy suffered pelvic and foot fractures after a fall. After receiving treatment at Regional One Health’s Elvis Presley Trauma Center and Inpatient Rehabilitation Therapy, she was able to get back on her feet and continue outpatient therapy.
The team at the Elvis Presley Trauma Center evaluated her injuries, and CT scans and X-rays confirmed her pelvic and foot fractures. She spent a couple of days in the trauma step down unit before going to Regional One Health’s Inpatient Rehabilitation Hospital.
There, she found a team that delivered expertise and support to help her get back on her feet.
Mario Ray, MD, MBA, FACP, medical director for the Inpatient Rehabilitation Hospital, is the first doctor she saw. Gregory Robbins, MD and Danielle Hassel, MD, who specialize in physical medicine & rehabilitation, also provided care.
“They were great – all three of them,” Cathy said. “I’ve known Dr. Ray since he did his residency and internship at Regional One Health – he’s a sweetheart! They were all fantastic.”
Meanwhile, the physical therapy team helped her rebuild strength and mobility.
“I went from being bedridden to a wheelchair to using a walker for short walks,” Cathy said. “They did everything they could think of that I might need to do with my walker. They even took me outside and showed me how to get up and down a curb.”
It helped Cathy feel confident as she was discharged home and started doing outpatient physical therapy at Regional One Health’s East Campus Center for Rehabilitative Medicine.
“In two months, they have brought me from the walker to walking around in the house without the cane,” she said. “I’m getting more confident. All of the therapists have been fantastic – I feel like they’ve become friends!”
Cathy is grateful for her rehabilitation therapy team, both for their expertise and their flexibility in accommodating her work schedule.“It was just seamless,” she said. “I just can’t say enough good things about the experience I had.”
From the trauma center to the Inpatient Rehabilitation Hospital to outpatient therapy, Cathy has been impressed with the compassion and expertise she was shown. While she was an inpatient, doctors and nurses checked on her frequently and helped reduce the pain from her injuries; and the outpatient team accommodated her work schedule so it was convenient to continue therapy.
“It was just seamless,” she said. “I just can’t say enough good things about the experience I had.”
Now, she’s back to work full-time for Regional One Health’s pharmacy administration, where she oversees contracts, credentialing, reporting, and other needs. She’s also enjoying the day-to-day things she missed while she was injured.
“I had to miss church for seven weeks, and I’m glad to be back to church,” she said. “I was able to go shopping with a friend so we could catch a sale before it was over – I bought some winter sweaters that I needed!”
Cathy is grateful for Regional One Health’s role in her recovery – and as both an employee and a patient, she wants others to know about the excellent care the health system provides.
“I want everyone to know that Regional One Health rocks!” she said. “For my body, this is the worst experience I’ve ever had in my life…but Regional One Health made all the difference.”