Two years ago, Lisa Mazzola of Hyannis was in a coma in Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston, battling for her life, the left side of her body shattered literally from head to toe. A car traveling the wrong way on a one-way street ran a red light in downtown Hyannis and smashed into her motorcycle. Surgeons in Boston performed their own miracle. They brought her back from the near-fatal accident, rebuilt her body with the aid of titanium plates and dozens of surgical screws and a week later sent her back to the Rehabilitation Hospital of the Cape and Islands in Sandwich with the grim prognosis, "You'll never walk again."
They were wrong. Following three weeks of inpatient rehabilitation and three more months of intensive rehab as an outpatient, Lisa Mazzola, now 47, was on her way back. She's playing softball in the Dennis Ladies' League; sailing her boat, the Stella di Mare; wielding a hedge trimmer with her once-shattered arm and training for a new profession as a Physical Therapy Assistant, so she can do for others the miracles that she says the staff at RHCI accomplished for her. She's also built the deck at the home she shares with her mother and rebuilt the bright yellow motorcycle that was crumpled in the accident. (The bike is for sale now, but only for financial reasons, she insists. The guy who hit her was uninsured.) And she's also thrown away her prescription pain pills, refusing to use them as a crutch; just a couple of over-the-counter analgesics to "get over the edge" when necessary.
Just weeks after the second anniversary of her accident, Ms. Mazzola joined with another multiple trauma survivor, Christopher Davis of Chatham (in photo with Lisa), in lauding RHCI staff for their dedication and helping to kick off the institution's major fund-raising drive, the Seventh Annual Three-Mile Sandwich Board Walk September 9. Mr. Davis had suffered head injuries in addition to severe other physical damage in a November 2004 plane crash. But, after 11 weeks as an in-patient at RHCI, he's also beating the odds and on the way back.
The Rehabilitation Hospital of the Cape and Islands (RHCI) has become the first hospital in the northeast, and one of only five nationwide, to be designated as a Stroke Specialty Program by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF). The official notification followed a two-day site inspection conducted in March.
The CARF report notes exemplary conformance to practice standards in 10 categories, five of which relate to RHCI's stroke program. RHCI's extensive stroke education and prevention programs, its investment in technologies and other resources to support the delivery of excellent stroke rehabilitation care, and an innovative Stroke Peer Visitation Program were among program components highlighted in the report.
CARF has a 40-year history of setting standards of practice for providers of medical rehabilitation facilities. Last year CARF released new standards for accrediting Stroke Specialty Programs that would go into effect this January. RHCI was among the first hospitals in the country to request and undergo an accreditation review.
CARF surveyors particularly noted RHCI's hiring of a stroke education coordinator and use of the newest rehabilitation technologies. Last summer, for example, RHCI became the first hospital in New England to make the NESS H200 neuroprosthesis and rehabilitation system available for patient care.
CARF surveyors also praised RHCI's Stroke Peer Visitation Program, which trains stroke survivors and their caregivers to provide education and support to new stroke survivors in their homes.
Since it opened in 1995, about 20 percent of RHCI's inpatients have been stroke survivors.
With the creation of the RHCI Center for NeuroRecovery last year, RHCI implemented several enhancements to its stroke program. It recruited Dr. David M. Lowell, a neurologist with specialized training in neurobehavioral rehabilitation, as its medical director; it hired a stroke education coordinator to provide ongoing training for clinicians; and it added new therapeutic resources and outpatient services and programs.
The designation as a Stroke Specialty Program is part of a larger accreditation process by CARF that occurs every three years.