When a health condition limits a person’s ability to breathe, it can have a dramatic impact on their life.
Sharp Memorial Hospital’s Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program offers personalized treatment plans to help people with respiratory conditions return to the activities and lifestyle they enjoy.
The outpatient program augments the care being provided by their doctor.
Sharp’s program can help patients manage common respiratory conditions, including:
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
• COVID-recovery lung care
• Emphysema
• Lung cancer
• Asthma
• Chronic bronchitis
Comprehensive treatment tailored to each patient
At the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program, a multidisciplinary team of experts is dedicated to exploring every option to help patients control and decrease breathing difficulties.
Patients attend two outpatient sessions per week, where they learn techniques that allow them to breathe more efficiently and progress with their daily exercise routine.
One grateful patient is Maria Guevara, who spent five weeks in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) recovering from COVID and pneumonia.
After returning home, Guevara was weak, lacked muscle tone and could barely get out of bed. She required supplemental oxygen and developed pulmonary fibrosis, a disease that gets worse over time due to scarring in the lungs.
Her doctor referred her to the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program.
“Maria wanted to be active again,” said Kathleen Kennedy, RRT, RCP, Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program supervisor at Sharp Memorial. “She didn’t want to be afraid to leave her house due to her breathing challenges.”
Guevara’s therapy began with practicing breathing techniques during short walks on a treadmill. Little by little, she began to increase her exercise while decreasing the amount of oxygen she used.
One day while working out on the treadmill, Guevara was so focused that she didn’t realize she had been off oxygen for 15 minutes. She cried when Kennedy told her.
With a positive attitude and ongoing support, Guevara continued to improve. She soon learned that her lungs were clear and she no longer needed supplemental oxygen to survive.
She celebrated by going on the birthday brunch cruise with her girlfriends that she couldn’t manage the previous year.
“Maria was looking for hope when she entered our program,” said Kennedy. “But she’s the one who gave us hope that other patients could have success and get better.”
To learn more about the Sharp Memorial Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program, visit sharp.com/pulmonaryrehab or call 1-800-82-SHARP (1-800-827-4277), Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
