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March 29, 2024

“Caring, Knowledgeable and Engaged”: How a Fast-Acting Partners in Care Team Helped a 101-Year-Old Patient Recover Safely at Home

October 16, 2020

“It is difficult to express how grateful we are for the extraordinary service we received from Partners in Care,” wrote the niece of a 101-year-old man in Queens in a recent e-mail to Andria Castellanos, VNSNY’s Executive Vice President and Chief of Provider Services.

The story had begun a week earlier, with what the niece called “a family emergency.” Her uncle, recovering from pneumonia and electrolyte imbalance, but coherent and in good spirits, had been released on a Friday night from the hospital to a rehab facility. “By Saturday morning, after a terrible night alone, he was disoriented and refused to eat,” his niece recalled. “We also learned that, due to COVID-19, not only could his wife not come over that day, but he would be unable to have any visitors at all for over a week.”

The family realized that, for his mental, emotional—and, ultimately, physical—health, he needed to come home immediately. However, his wife would need live-in help to care for him while he recovered, and she couldn’t reach the home care agency she had used in the past.

Knowing they needed an organization that could respond quickly, the family contacted Partners in Care, whose staff sprang into action. The process began with a high-priority call to Erin Swinton, an experienced Home Health Aide Supervisor with Partners in Care. Erin was supposed to be off that day, but she and Rosa Marcus, Associate Director of Partners in Care, began hitting the phones to find a live-in aide who could get to the couple’s home in Little Neck, Queens that same day.

They soon located Patricia Green, a Partners in Care Home Health Aide who lives in Far Rockaway, on the other side of Queens. Moving swiftly, the Partners in Care team cleared the path for Patricia to start working right away. “We dealt with half a dozen people over the phone on the weekend, who set up the services and made sure everything was arranged without a hitch,” the niece noted in her email to Andria. “To a person, they were caring, patient, knowledgeable, and engaged. Everyone at Partners in Care was wonderful.”

Patricia herself, the niece added, “was fantastic. She was a calming and reassuring presence, and helped with all aspects of our uncle’s care. She even got him joking around and singing, which was an important morale boost not only for him, but for his wife and for the rest of us. Patricia undoubtedly put him on the road to recovery.”

“He was fun to talk to… he likes watching baseball, and still reads newspapers,” says Patricia, explaining how much she enjoyed caring for her patient. “And you’d never know how old he was. He has perfect, beautiful skin—not one wrinkle! I know we’re not supposed to get attached to our patients, but even in a few days I grew to love him. It was an honor to take care of him.”

“The patient’s wife called me and said Patricia was wonderful,” says Josephine Smith, an administrative supervisor at Partners in Care who is helping to handle the uncle’s case. “She was surprised because her husband usually doesn’t like aides, but Patricia made him feel so comfortable.”

When the uncle had recovered enough for Patricia to leave, it was an emotional moment for everyone. “They treated me like family,” she says. “I could just feel all the love from all of their hugs.”

Looking back, Erin says she has a warm feeling about the entire episode, from VNSNY’s response and Patricia’s terrific work, to how happy the client and his family were with the outcome. “It was all just so touching,” she says. “It reminded me of why I love this job.”