Richard Keefe

Former rehab patient credits short stay at Penacook

with long-term recovery

HAVERHILL – Penacook Place Nursing and Rehabilitation Center is home to many elderly residents who have decided with their families that it is can best meet their long-term care needs. However, it is also a “home away from home” for short-term residents who choose Penacook when they are in need of rehabilitative services.

Richard Keefe received physical therapy at Penacook over a four-week period after he was diagnosed with Stage IV Peritoneal Mesothelioma.

“I was as weak as a newborn kitten,” Keefe recalled. “I could do nothing for myself and depended on family members to dispense my medication, bathe me, dress me and even feed me what little food I could tolerate the few days I was home during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.”

At the time he was admitted to Penacook Place, Keefe had lost 50 pounds, was confined to a recliner and could barely walk. Although he was not aware of his prognosis at the time, his physicians had predicted he would die within two weeks.

That was more than four years ago. Keefe – who today is living a full, active, cancer-free life  –  spoke at a reunion of former rehab patients held at Penacook late in 2005. He told his audience that he believes the care and attention he received at Penacook Place saved his life.

“I had extremely sensitive and proficient nursing care. I lacked for nothing professionally, yet was never treated like a number or a diagnosis code,” he said. “And with the Rehab Department’s hard work and loving ministrations, I graduated from that recliner to a wheelchair in just over a week. Approximately a week later, I was strolling the hallways with a walker.”

According to Director of Rehabilitation Services Steven Buckley, there are many success stories about individuals who enter Penacook on a short-term basis so that they can receive the rehabilitative therapy they require and return to their normal lives.

“Some people receive physical therapy after a hip or knee replacement. Others have had pneumonia and weren’t strong enough to go home,” said Buckley. “Most are people who needed a couple of weeks of strengthening. Some have even returned to work.”

For example, one elderly patient was recently admitted to Penacook Place after a stop at a local rehabilitative hospital for respiratory and cardiac care. After undergoing extensive rehabilitative therapies at Penacook Place and overcoming several medical obstacles, she was able to safely return home with the support of her family, enjoying a modified independent, but active lifestyle.

Another woman in her 60s received intensive physical and occupational therapy services at Penacook Place following total knee replacement surgery. She is now home with her family and gradually returning to an independent lifestyle.

Penacook Place’s Rehabilitation Services Department offers physical, occupational and speech therapy services and has a staff of approximately 15 full-time, part-time and per diem therapists.

Located at 150 Water St., the 160-bed Penacook Place is the only not-for-profit nursing and rehabilitation facility serving the city of Haverhill. Penacook Place has a professional staff of 230 employees.