*Martha had been having heart issues for a while, including high blood pressure and a low ejection fraction (when the percentage of blood in your heart that’s pumped out to the rest of the body is low), but she felt worse than usual. “I just had a day where I was just not feeling well, and by 7:00 p.m. I was like, ‘I think I better go to the hospital,’ because Tylenol didn’t fix it and nothing was really helping me feel better, so I just went to the hospital,” she recalls.

Thank goodness she did because the ER doctor informed her that in addition to her heart issues, she had Type 2 diabetes. “Going to the hospital saved my life,” says Martha, who is the mother of two boys.

Before being discharged, the doctor prescribed home health follow-up care, but unfortunately, Martha soon discovered that her health insurance wouldn’t cover most of the cost. But thankfully, the social worker referred her to VNA. Through donations made to the VNA & Hospice Foundation, she was able to receive the home health care services she needed to help her recover. Martha, who has been a resident of Vero Beach for most of her adult life, was immensely grateful VNA offers assistance for those under- or uninsured, and her home health team was more than thrilled to be there for her. “Martha was very receptive to all teaching provided by the nurses,” says one of her caregivers, Tracy Woods, RN.

Over the course of six weeks, Martha’s team of VNA health clinicians, including Tracy, visited her a few days a week and provided the education and tools she needed not only to recover, but to manage on her own after her VNA care was finished. “The nurses would come in and they would check my blood pressure and my oxygen levels. They wanted to make sure that all that was clear and then we would have a little educational session about how things were going, meaning how my medications were working, including my blood sugar meds, things like that,” she says.

This attention to detail by Martha’s home health team is typical because at the VNA, caregivers are passionate about what they do. Daily, they are a true reflection of our “Why” statement – Collaborating as a team to provide excellent care to patients and families–with integrity, compassion, knowledge, and love–so that patients experience optimal quality of care at all times.

Martha appreciates this ethos. “Everyone who came out to the house was very kind and professional during the visit,” she says. “(And) the services really helped me to stay on track, monitoring my blood sugar. It was a good thing for me, you know, because it helped me to continue to do it on my own after the services ended…The services were great. I was disappointed when they had to end.”

*Martha is not her real name.