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Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Capt. Scott Walsh was supposed to die.
Responding to a routine 911 call, Walsh, carrying 75 pounds of equipment, ran into a blazing garbage transfer station. After taking one step, he fell to the bottom of a 25-foot concrete pit, shattering his hip, elbow, arm and wrist. His condition was critical.
“They told me I was supposed to die,” Walsh said. “The thing about falling is, you have nanoseconds to think before you hit. But in that time, I thought, ‘Am I making my wife a widow?’ And I thought about all of the firefighters in the World Trade Center.”
Walsh made an astonishing recovery, however, and attributes his new lease on life in large part to his nine weeks of treatment at the Los Altos Sub-Acute & Rehabilitation Center.
Tucked unobtrusively amid the pines at 809 Fremont Avenue, the skilled nursing facility has offered comprehensive and progressive treatment programs since 1995.
“My therapist said it’s just as much physical as it is mental,” Walsh said of his recovery. “If you’re in a depressing environment, coupled with the medicine, it can really put you in the toilet. But it was a lot of fun here. (The Sub-Acute Center) is a jewel in Los Altos people don’t really know about.”
To complement its existing services, the center celebrated the ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new Regional Outpatient Center (ROC) April 28. The ROC’s goal is to provide physical, occupational and speech therapy on an outpatient basis to local communities.
The center, which offers multilingual rehab staff, answered a dire need for state-of-the-art geriatric care in the area, according to Rehabilitation Director Cindy Carter, who oversaw much of its implementation.
“There are very few people we will turn away,” said Heidi Stone, the center’s area marketing director.
Many patients exhaust their options for rehabilitation at home. To speed their recoveries, the ROC boasts the latest and most innovative equipment and programs to treat those with arthritis, stroke symptoms, Parkinson’s disease, cardiac conditions, chronic pain and more.
“Many home therapy agencies were beginning to refer to us, stating that home therapy had done everything that it could,” Carter said. “But patients still have potential to improve.”
With the goal of instilling independence in patients, the center knocked down a few walls last year to make room for the ROC.
Patients recover and regain their independence by relearning ordinary tasks. The ROC features the latest and most innovative exercise machines that encompass a range of motions, Wii Fit and sports programs, and a functional kitchen where patients can practice a variety of daily activities.
“Maybe their goal is to be free of pain, maybe it means walking without a cane. Maybe it is to cook a meal,” Carter said.
The center provides transportation within a 15-mile range for patients unable to make it to the center on their own.
Allan Figel of Los Altos, 87, has undergone treatment at the center three times for hip surgery and complications.
“My hips were out,” Figel said. “I had played a lot of golf, gone on walks and so forth. At my age, it’s hard to get back to being a youth.”
Figel recovered from excruciating pain under the guidance of his physical therapist, Chaula Vakil, who, Figel said, “made me exercise, get ultrasounds, kick balloons and walk around backwards.”
Therapists and staff said the addition of the ROC to the Sub-Acute & Rehabilitation Center has given them a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment.
“I am thrilled my vision for a geriatric-based outpatient clinic that can serve the community has been realized,” Carter said.
Patients said they have fond memories of their time at the center, despite being immobile at certain points during treatment.
“Not a day goes by I don’t think about my nurse or therapist,” Walsh said.
For more information, call 948-4386 or visit www.losaltossubacute.com.
Contact Elliott Burr at 948-9000
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