Breathing Easier – NCH Rehabe Center expands

nch-rehab-centerImagine you or a loved one not being able to breathe—a debilitating feeling that permeates every area of life.

Respiratory diseases like COPD affect millions of Americans, can be acquired in multiple ways, and are not always self-inflicted. The NCH Pulmonary Rehabilitation Center is making a difference in the lives of those suffering with severe respiratory illness and lung disease by improving their quality of life.

“We have more patients who want to access this program than we have facilities to provide them,” said NCH’s Director of Respiratory Care Services Scott Wiley, who is working with the NCH Healthcare Foundation on the fundraising campaign.

“It is not a case of ‘if you build it they will come’—patients need help now.” And now, a much-needed expansion of NCH Pulmonary Rehab to provide such lifechanging services is possible.

“This can become a reality with strong philanthropic support,” said Jim Martin, Chief Development Officer for the NCH Healthcare System.

NCH must raise $1 million to expand the Center.

Naming opportunities are available— including for the entire Rehabilitation Center, should someone step up to fund the project in its entirety.

Pennie Finfrock, lead clinician at the rehab facility, lives and breathes the Center’s mission every day.

“Help is available if your doctor has diagnosed you or a loved one with COPD, pulmonary fibrosis, or some other chronic lung disease,” said Finfrock. “Patients don’t have to sit in their house and worry about where their next breath will come from.”

“The community is still greatly underserved, and while the program cannot reverse the disease process, we can help improve overall quality of life and shortness of breath. For people on home oxygen therapy, in many cases the need for oxygen can be reduced, and in some cases home oxygen regimens can be eliminated altogether,” said Wiley.

“Graduates of our core program also receive aftercare maintenance and benefit from the social support of fellow patients.”

Wiley and Finfrock have seen patients go from being homebound to thriving. The Center’s physical expansion will make room for patients to benefit from its vital services, create new educational space, provide better equipment for strength training, aerobics and stretching and encompass a host of other upgrades.

Donate

To make a donation toward the new NCH Pulmonary
Rehabilitation Center, contact the NCH Foundation at
239.624.2000, or visit www.NCHmd.org/donate.
For more information on NCH Pulmonary Rehabilitation
services call 239.552.7878.

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