The Lady in the tent

Let me preface that I am sorry I have not been around all weekend.  I did not have access to wireless at all!  Believe me, it was killing me!

I had heard about the lady in the tent, but I had not had the opportunity to treat her all week.  Friday was the first time I got to experience Dossa.  The rehab techs were not there this day so Kristen, the OT and I got to treat everyone in the hospital. I had seen her before.  She sits in a blue two person tent in the front parking lot of the hospital.  She rarely leave her tent, and she sits on the ground in the tent.  She has a perfectly good cot with a perfectly good mattress overlay that is nicely made with clean frilly sheets.  Dossa does not even sleep on the cot, she sleeps on the floor.  She says that she does not sleep on the cot for fear she will roll off since she moves around alot in her sleep.  I offer to remove the cot and put the mattress on the ground and she refuses because where then will her guests sleep, she asks. 

I am amazed to discover that Dossa is 85 years old.  Her skin makes her looks much younger, and she has this captivating energy and presentation about herself.  She also has had her left leg amputated below the knee.  She is awaiting a prosthetic.  She doesn't hop much  with her walker becase she says she fell once, she is fearful.  She initially refuses therapy, but we slowly charm her into it.  My goal is for this woman to be able to get herself off the hard floor of the tent where I respect her wishes to sleep there and get herself into the wheelchair so that she can maneuver around.  This is so she doesn't have to be so alone and dependent on others for everything.  I can see that she is a very strong, sturdy woman for 85 (amazing!), and this is a realistic goal.  I never thought that one of my goals as a PT would be to help an OLD woman be independent getting off the floor of her tent and into a wheelchair! 

So, through the interpretor I tell her I need to see her get from the floor onto her bed.  I don't assist, because I want to see what she can do.  Well, she definitely does not use the technique I would have recommended, but she gets up there without any help, without half of her left leg AND she's 85 years old!  Then I ask her to stand.  She is fearful.  I crouch down into her tent with her and set up her walker in front of her cot which she is now sitting on.  Before she stands she says a prayer and recites a Haitian chant.  My translator laughs because she says that they are some old Haitian sayings that she has never even heard before.  Then she does it, she stands for me without problem.  Great!  She sits back down and I tell her I need her to get from the cot to her wheelchair.  After more prayers and chants, and some instruction from us, she pivots over to the chair with minimal assist.  She is on her way to hopefully being able to get herself out of the tent without 2 people dragging her off the floor and into the chair.  Once she got in the chair, with her deep raspy voice she sang another chant that sounded like a fight song to me and we clapped to her rhythm and she smiled her toothless smile and her eyes shined with happiness.  

After Madame Dossa was in her wheelchair outside her tent finally, she said something to the effect of "We begin life as babies and end life like babies.  Just having fun and a good time."  This coming from a woman who has lost part of her leg surviving an earthquake, who doesn't seem to have any family, and who lives on the floor of a small tent in the parking lot in front of the hopital.