11/26/2009 - West Side Leader
     

Ted Robak leaves the physical therapy room at Ridgewood Healthcare Center accompanied by Wendi Green, a physical therapy assistant who worked with him as he overcame many setbacks that began two years ago.

Photo: Kathleen Folkerth

The Garrettsville man, 54, just returned to his home after two years in which he was hospitalized for weeks at a time, suffered through several lung collapses and was bedridden for months.

But Robak was able to walk out the doors of the Ridgewood Healthcare Center in Copley Nov. 20 with just the help of a walker.

“I never thought I’d be at this point,” a smiling Robak said two days before he was scheduled to go home.

Robak has been on dialysis since 2006 due to problems with his kidneys. But on Dec. 5, 2007, he headed to Robinson Memorial Hospital in Ravenna after feeling pain in his stomach for a couple of days.

An exam showed he had a perforated bowel. The doctors sent him immediately to Akron City Hospital for surgery.

“That’s when it all started,” Robak said. “I almost died, I guess. They didn’t know if I would make it or not.”

He was unconscious for several weeks before finally awakening in February 2008.

“I had tubes in my throat and tubes all over the place,” he said. “All I could do is look around and nod my head.”

Being confined to a hospital bed left him with a large wound on his backside that proved to be very painful. He was released to a rehabilitation center in Ravenna, but he had to be taken offsite to dialysis three times a week.

“My body hurt so bad, when they moved me to go to dialysis it was very painful,” Robak said.

He and his wife, Barbara, decided they needed to find a nursing home where he could receive dialysis onsite, so in July 2008 he moved to Ridgewood Healthcare Center on Ridgewood Road.

Robak said he couldn’t do much when he arrived.

“I couldn’t move,” he said. “I couldn’t roll; I couldn’t do anything.”

Denise Bisaha, rehabilitation director at Ridgewood, said staff treated Robak’s wound to help get him on the path to recovery. Before long, Robak had to return to Akron City Hospital for surgery to repair fistulas. Because he wasn’t strong enough for the surgery, the hospital kept him as a patient until he could handle the procedure, he said.

He had the surgery in May and returned to Ridgewood in July. At that point, Robak said he was doing better but still was in a lot of pain.

“My wound still hurt quite a bit, but I started therapy and started sitting up,” he said.

Continuing problems with his lungs collapsing led him to another hospital stay, but he returned to Ridgewood in August.

Working with the rehabilitation staff there, Robak took part in daily therapy sessions in which he used free weights and machines to work his muscles. He also used a stationary cycle for his legs and arms.

Bisaha said when Robak finally could stand and walk, the staff was amazed.

“When he stood and took his first step, everyone in the department just stood in the doorway clapping,” she said.

Within a couple of weeks he progressed to taking more steps when he could.

“The next thing I know, he was walking down the hall,” Bisaha said.

Robak said the road to recovery wasn’t always easy.

“At times I was frustrated,” he said. “There were times when they told me I would be able to do something and I told them they were crazy.”

He credits his family — which includes daughters Jennifer, 27, of Alaska, and Katie, 25, at home — and the staff at Ridgewood with helping him achieve the impossible.

“I couldn’t do what I’m able to do today without them,” he said.

This holiday, he said he would be giving thanks to Brandy Moore, Pat Gyasi, Lavitta Taylor, Emmie Berlin, Stephanie Smith, Wendi Green, Sue Andrea, Laura Weber and Marcia Martell, all Ridgewood staff members, for their help.

He said he looked forward to a quiet Thanksgiving with his wife and daughter in their Portage County home. He also anticipated seeing his dog, Zack, an Alaskan husky that he had seen only once in the past two years.

Robak’s journey is not complete yet. He will continue therapy at home and then as an outpatient, to which he plans to drive himself. He said he still uses a wheelchair for most of his getting around, but he intends to graduate to just using a cane.

“That’s what I’m hoping for,” he said. “Or maybe nothing at all after awhile. That’s my goal.”

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