Nursing home crucial link in local man’s recovery from fall

Les Hibbitts, above, working with Hillcrest Health and Rehabilitation Center Occupational Therapist Leslie Preston.

At 73-years-old, Laurel County native Les Hibbitts was in excellent health.

With the exception of some minor problems with his blood pressure, he was active and productive. Living in a nursing home, for any length of time, was the last thing on his mind.

Fate had other ideas.

On March 25 of this year, Hibbitts was helping to construct a picnic shelter for his cousin. He was working on the roof when tragedy struck. He blacked out and fell to the ground.

"I don’t have much of a memory of anything," Hibbitts said Tuesday, a little over two months removed from the accident. "I kind of remember them sliding me in to the helicopter. They took me to the hospital and went to work on me. I don’t remember nothing for just about a whole week."

Hibbitts was airlifted to the University of Kentucky Medical Center. He’d fallen off the roof and landed on his head. His injuries included a broken arm, broken wrists, a broken right leg, broken vertebra, a lacerated liver, bleeding on his brain and a bruised aorta.

When he became conscious again while in intensive care, he was completely immobile. He learned that he’d been on a ventilator and had to be shocked back to life after his heart lost rhythm.

"I was in perfect health when I fell. When I woke up, things was a lot different."

Doctors had determined by April 11 that Hibbitts needed to go into a rehabilitation program, but required more attention than he could get through traditional methods. Hibbit’s wife, Linda, to whom he’s been married for 35 years, could not provide the necessary care at home.

So it was recommended he go to Hillcrest Health and Rehabilitation Center – a nursing home in southern Laurel County near Corbin.

"We didn’t really know anything about it, but I just knew there was no way we could care for him around the clock," Linda Hibbitts said. "We could have never taken care of him at home."

From the day he checked into Hillcrest in mid-April, staff members there say he started to make steady improvements.
Leslie Preston, an Occupational Therapist at Hillcrest, started working at the facility about a week after Hibbitts arrived. He was one of her first patients.

"When I came here, he couldn’t get out of the bed," Preston recalls. "We worked with him for at least and hour and a half to two hours per day. It got to the point that as soon as we walked in, he was ready to get up and go."

Preston said Hibbitts was provided with a special walker that allowed him to put weight on his elbows so he could stand and be mobile. Soon after, he began to regain the ability to do simple routines like brushing his hair or putting on some of his clothing.

"That’s why I do what I do," Preston said, remembering the three weeks she worked with Hibbitts fondly. "I love to see patients get back home with their families and able to do as much for themselves as they can. That was his goal, too. He would always say, ‘I want to do it.’"

Gail Gibbs, Administrator at Hillcrest, said short-term residents like Hibbitts are part of an ever-increasing portion of the nursing home business. Between 20 and 25 percent of the residents at Hillcrest are there for short-term care, debunking the myth that nursing homes are only necessary for end of life care.

"The majority of those short-termers are home within a month," Gibbs noted. "The face of long-term care has changed. It’s now more of a split. We are seeing a lot of people in similar situations coming here and they need care and therapy so they can get back on their feet. It’s a pleasure to do whatever we can to provide that for them."

Gibbs said family support is vital to the recovery process. Hibbit’s wife and family members were always nearby to encourage and support him through the process.

"He was very motivated," she said. "That is a big part of the battle. You have got to have the family encouraging you and being there for you. He said right from the start, ‘I’ve got to get better and go home.’ He was not one of those who came in here very down. He was upset at himself for what happened, but he had a good attitude."

Staff at Hillcrest said Hibbitts made many friends during his 18-day stay. He was discharged April 29.

At home, walking now without the aid of a walker and beginning to do again many of the activities he loved, Hibbitts said he looks back on his time at Hillcrest fondly.

"You couldn’t ask for no nicer people," he said. "Everybody was on the ball. Everybody there was excellent."
His wife concurs.

"The attention to detail there is what amazed me," Linda Hibbitts said. "We didn’t know what to expect when we first went there, but it seemed like a good home atmosphere … and they were so good to him. He came so far so fast. We’d just like to thank everybody at Hillcrest for what they did."

Hibbitts visited Hillcrest a few weeks ago to thank the workers who aided in his recovery. While there, he pushed aside his walker and strolled around the facility to the amazement of everyone in attendance.

Preston said it was rewarding to see the progress he had made.

"When you work with someone every day, you get attached to them," she said. "You want to see them do good. I treat every resident I have just like I’d want my family to be treated. If you show them respect and love, you will get that in return."

Soon, Hibbitts said, he will be back to his hobbies: hunting, gardening and hiking with his great nieces. After a corrective surgery on his right wrist, he said he’s hopeful he can play the guitar again.

But one thing he won’t be doing is any more roof work.

"He’s grounded," Linda Hibbitts said, laughing. "Literally."