Success Story: Raymond

Meet Raymond, an Army veteran who was stationed in Korea and Hawaii, serving a total of five years. His main job in the Army was to maintain the communications on the base. After discharge from the service, he put those skills to work and worked in telecommunications hooking up systems in private sector across the country.

Raymond came to The Gardens at West Shore after suffering a stroke for rehabilitation with the goal of being able to return home. Raymond recalls, “I was not able to eat, and I was in a wheelchair. Eventually I got to be able to use a walker and started to get better.”

Raymond leaves us today to return home, walking out the front door on his own two feet. He said the first thing that he is going to do when he gets home is “Have a drink on my own couch, in my own apartment and put my feet up.”

“It’s been a process,” Raymond describes. “I would tell others that started where I started to put your heart into it and just keep going.”

Cindy, RN remembers Raymond as always pushing himself to continue to improve and remembers shortly after Raymond started walking with a cane he would walk all over the nursing unit several times a day. One day she saw him leaning against the handrail in the hallway rubbing his back. She asked him what was wrong and he said, “My back hurts because I am walking. My back is tight.” He was offered a chair or pain medication and his response was, “No, I need to keep walking. I need to get stronger. I am going to push through this.” She was so impressed with his determination. And he did, keep right on walking!