82-Lancastar Fanning, Saturday, Novembar 22, 1997
Home Health Care Helps Rural Residents Recuperate
JOYCE BUPP
York Co. Correspondent
GETTYSBURG (Adams Co.)
Phyllis Green would scoff at
being compared to an angel.
But to many recuperating and
elderly rural residents of the
Gettysburg and Emmitsburg,
Maryland, area, Phyllis brings to
them a priceless gift the ability
to remain, during a difficult time
of their lives, in the comfort and
familiarity of their own homes.
“This is the best job in the
world,” says Phyllis, who brings
her patients only physical care,
but a warm smile and caring
friendship. A registered nurse and
Adams County farmer’s wife, she
was drawn years ago toward the
Held of serving the sick and in
jured in a setting other than a care
facility.
Phyllis grew up on the Jim and
Lorraine Wivell family’s dairy
farm in northern Frederick Coun
ty, one of 13 children. She earned
her nursing degree at the Univer
sity of Maryland, seeking out
classes in home care nursing when
it was not a particularly popular
study field. She and Bob Green
married and settled in on his fami
ly’s farm in rural southern Adams
County, where they continue to
produce field crops and operate a
logging and saw mill business. As
a young bride, Phyllis began
working with the Visiting Nurse
Association.
Phyllis gave up her full-time
nursing career while their two
sons and one daughter were small.
In 1985, she returned to home
health care, a field that has bur
geoned in recent years as insur
ance and hospital policies have re
leased patients after increasingly
shorter stays. And, increasingly.
Medicare-subsidized home health
nursing care is filling the gap be
tween hospitals and healing for
homebound patients.
November is Home Health Care
month, a salute to a profession that
has changed as dramatically in the
last decade as it has grown in
need.
For those dedicated nurses who
travel the rural roads, bringing
help and assurance to sick and
elderly patients and their families,
the job is not just a job, but an
emotional commitment They deal
with families under great stress,
struggling with upheavals and ma
jor lifestyle changes. Sometimes,
Phyllis helps patients to die. She
has, on occasion, been called in
the middle of die night to help
ease the last moments of a dying
patient and comfort their loved
ones through the ordeal.
But more importantly. Phyllis
Green and others like her, help
people to live and to live with
dignity and greater comfort in
their own homes.
“I laugh alot...lcryak)t...
I pray a lot,” Phyllis Green says
with a gentle smile. She credits
her husband, co-workers, and her
faith as being sources of strength
at those times when despite the
fact that she is just doing her job
the emotional involvement
with a patient and their family be
comes personally touching.
“Home health care is now
round-the-clock care,” explains
Phyllis, who periodically takes her
turns at the 24-hour and weekend
shifts with other nursing profes
sionals on the staff of Home Call,
headquartered locally in Freder
ick, Maryland. “And it’s gotten
very high-tech.”
“In 1974, when I started, we
mostly bath?,. an<l .occasion
ally inserted a catheter for a pa-
tient. Then patients began being
put on oxygen at home. Now, we
do IVs (intravenous administra
tion of medications) that aren’t
even used in certain areas of hos
pitals and work with transplant pa
tients that are only nine days post
operative.”
She notes that home care entails
not just high-tech medical pro
cedures, but a wider support sys
tem as well. Medicare programs
will fund home health care for the
first several weeks, for evaluation
of the patient and for some ongo
ing care, so long as the patient is
immediately housebound upon re
lease from the hospital. Patients
are often seen two or three times a
week at first, then weekly as their
conditions improve.
By visiting patients several
limes early in their recovery per
iods, home health care nurses can
quickly spot danger symptoms
infection, pneumonia, blood pres
sure swings, medication side ef
fects and intervene with physi
cians for prompt follow-up care.
In addition to visits by the nurse, a
home health care aide provides
more personal care, helping pa
tients with physical needs like
baths, dressing, shaving, eating.
Phyllis’ farming background
stands her well as she covers a
couple hundred miles weekly back
and forth across the Mason-Dixon
line, visiting ho* patients scattered
through southern Adams and
northern Frederick counties. She
is especially concerned that farm
families, so accustomed to “doing
for themselves,” be familiar with
assistance that is available for
health care for the homebound.
“There are such nice people out
there,” Phyllis says of her patients.
“I love going to the farms. Farm
people are so accustomed to tak
ing care of their own that they
don’t often realize what they are
eligible for. And a little bit of help
often is all that is needed to help
them to live in their own homes.”
One of her regular patients for
some time has been Ray Seiss, an
80-year-old former dairy and
crops farmer Grom Creagerstown.
Last December, Ray was driving
his tractor on die road that passes
by the farm, when the tractor was
struck by a truck. His wife. Car
men, following behind, watched
in horror as the crash tossed him
straight up in the air, then onto the
paved road, where he landed on
the side of his head.
For three weeks, Ray was hos
pitalized in a shock trauma unit
From there, he spent two months
in rehabilitation care, and then
moved to an area nursing care fa
cility. Among his numerous injur
ies, Ray has lost most of his vi
sion.
“I wanted to bring him home,”
Carmen explained. “The children
said they would help me.”
The couple has six children,
four of them living nearby. With
the help and guidance of Phyllis
and her co-workers. Carmen has
mastered changing aspects of
Ray’s care, like monitoring his
medications and making adapta
tions to his diet Carmen also cred
its Phyllis with teaching her
numerous signs to watch for any
changes to her husband’s health
condition. Aides who visit regu
larly further help with his personal
needs.
“Mom couldn’t do it all by her
self.” says Louise Carter, their
youngest daughter.
“It has completely changed our
life,” quietly adds Carmen. “I
hope that one pf these days, thing*
will improve. If it weren’t for the
Phyllis Green checks Ray Selss’ blood pressure, part of the patient care admin
istered by home health nurses.
The use of home health care has enabled Ray Seiss to return to his home and fami
ly after a life-threatening tractor accident nearly one year ago. With the former dairy
farmer are his wife Carmen, daughter Louise, and her children Ashley and Austin
Carter.
home health care, I’d have to hire
a private nurse.”
When another Frederick Coun
ty retired dairy farmer was re
leased from the hospital more than
a year ago, Phyllis elected to re
main professionally uninvolved
despite her personal interest in the
patient
Her father. Jim Wivell, of
Walkersvillc, underwent a physi
cal in September 1996, as a pre
cursor to planned shoulder sur
gery. The shoulder surgery was
abandoned when a major heart
problem was discovered during
the routine examination.
After he returned home follow
ing valve replacement and triple
bypass open-heart surgery at York
Hospital, one of WivelTs first
visitors was Phyllis’ Home Call
co-worker and friend, Jane Zim
merman. When Jane began work
ing with Home Care, she trained
under Phyllis; their patient terri
tories are adjoining.
“I have a sister who is also a
nurse, but we wanted someone
else who would be at the house
regularly,” Phyllis explains of
•t v "<“
i-fOME
why the family utilized home
health care assistance. With the
metal heart valve that Wivell had
implanted, he needed to have
blood drawn and checked regular
ly. He also needed to become
familiar with medications pre
scribed for keeping his blood thin
ned, as well as to have several sur
gery incisions checked until they
were completely healed.
“It was great peace of mind for
me to have a professional like
Jane,” says Lorraine Wivell, Phyl
lis’ mother. The Wivells’ home is
a half-mile back a farm lane and
Lorraine was especially con
cerned about their distance from
help, should an emergency have
arisen. When Wivell developed an
infection in one of his leg inci
sions, it was Jane who promptly
made arrangements to get the
necessary medication.
Jane, like Phyllis, grew up on
her family’s dairying operation,
and has returned to a home mi Tre
go and Shirley Zimmerman’s farm
at Walkcrsvillc, in order to be
close to her nursing job. She felt
called to the health profession at
an eariy age, and was a teen-ager
when she helped care for her
grandfather during his losing bat
tle with cancer. One of the reasons
she chose home health cate is the
greater opportunity offered for
working with and teaching pa
tients.
“There is usually not a lot of
time for teaching in a hospital
situation. A lot of times, patients
are discharged so quickly that they
don’t have time to leant all the
things they should know about
their care. Or, they may be too ex
hausted to deal with it,” she re
lates.
“Heart surgery, for instance, is
an emotional thing,” Jane ack
nowledges. “Patients experience a
lot of fears. And they usually have
to deal with some lifestyle
changes. Family plays a large role
in what we do. Probably more
than half our time is spent teach
ing and educating patients and
their families.”
“ Sometimes you must be very
creative,” she admits, of the daily
(Turn to Pago B 3)