A Niagara County Woman’s COVID Journey
By Annette Pinder
Seven months after it began, a Niagara County woman’s journey through the darkness of COVID-19 came to a happy conclusion this fall when she was discharged from the specialized ventilator care unit at Elderwood at Williamsville.
Mary Corio’s story began in March 2021 when she was admitted to Mt. Saint Mary’s Hospital in Lewiston with a COVID-19 infection. At the time of her admission, Mary was 64 years old, and suffering from respiratory failure and complications with asthma. Following her initial treatment at Mt. Saint Mary’s, she was transferred to the Catholic Health System’s dedicated COVID facility at Sisters Hospital St. Joseph Campus in Cheektowaga (Sister’s Hospital).
Mary’s condition was grave. She was paralyzed, dependent on a ventilator, and had to lie in a prone position for more than six weeks. When Catholic Health discontinued its dedicated COVID operations at Sisters Hospital, Mary, still on a ventilator, was transferred to Mercy Hospital of Buffalo. COVID took her even further away from home when she was again transferred to Select Specialty Hospital’s ventilator unit in Erie, PA in hopes of improving her pulmonary function and weaning her off the ventilator. She remained there for nearly a month. Select’s clinicians projected that Mary could remain on the ventilator for as long as a year, and being nearly two hours from home made it difficult for her to receive visits from her family members.
Fortunately, a chance meeting with a pulmonary specialist from Elderwood at Williamsville resulted in Mary’s transfer to Elderwood at Williamsville, which offers the only subacute weaning ventilator unit in Western New York. By that time, two months after she was first diagnosed, Mary’s respiratory condition was serious. She was also unable to move her arms and legs well, and required a feeding tube. After remaining paralyzed for so long, she also developed foot drop, which caused the front of her foot to drag on the ground.
Elderwood at Williamsville’s care team began weaning Mary from her ventilator a month after she was admitted. She began using hi-flow trach collar trials, and was finally weaned and breathing on her own by summer’s end. By the time of her discharge, she was able to walk on her own, taking the final joy-filled steps of her journey home herself.
“With the support of her family, friends, and a talented team of physicians, therapists, and clinical professionals, Mary’s ability to receive care much closer to home was, no doubt, a factor in her remarkable recovery,” said Anne Taggart, Director of Respiratory Therapy at Elderwood at Williamsville, adding, “I hope more people become aware of our subacute weaning ventilator unit so that they can receive the help they need for themselves and their loved ones close to home.”
Several Elderwood skilled nursing, long and short-term care and rehabilitation facilities were recently recognized for excellence. See https://tinyurl.com/h7kmbymr. Learn more about Elderwood at www.elderwood.com or call 888-826-9663.
