The Hastings Banner — Thursday, October 14, 2021 — Page 3Teresa said. There were so many people that
the security guard had to take them down the
elevator in groups for smoke breaks.
Troy spent a year in Spectrum Health
Rehabilitation and Nursing Center before he
was moved to Homewards North in the Neuro
Rehabilitation homes, often referred to as an
“adult foster care home,” where residents
receive 24-hour supervision from caregivers
who have specialized training working with
people who have brain injuries.
He was put on “aggressive therapy” for two
and a half years. He would ride on horses, write,
roll himself over and pedal on a bike. Slowly, he
got better and Teresa even has a photo of him
standing in his room with a walker.While he was in critical care, Teresa lost
guardianship of Troy, who was assigned a
state-appointed guardian. The next few years
were messy, as Teresa battled with the former
guardian in court about the best steps forward
for Troy. In the process, Troy lost the aggres-
sive therapy and switched to maintenance
therapy against Teresa’s wishes.
His living situation in the Neuro
Rehabilitation homes is not perfect, Teresa
said. Without the aggressive care, he has lost
muscle and the ability to swallow. But that’s
better than leaving, Teresa said.
The staff workers know Troy, or “Troy-seph”
(like Joseph) as they call him, at the home. They
know he doesn’t like when they brush his teeth too
hard, they know he’s upset when he shakes and
they know when he blinks twice, he means “yes.”
Before COVID-19, they took him out on trips
to the county fair or a Grand Rapids Griffins
hockey game, one of his favorites. Teresa visits
at least three days a week when she can take him
out for walks to the gazebo and koi pond.
“That’s his home,” she said. “It’s not a ster-
ile hospital room. It’s where he’s lived for the
last 13 years. His bedroom’s there. His house-
mates are there. Some of the same people have
been working there the entire time. And they
all care and love him.”
When Spectrum Neuro Rehabilitation closes
its doors in the coming weeks, Troy will move
to the skilled nursing center, where he will live
in a larger setting without the same kind of care.
“We know it’s not what’s desired,” Pakkala
said. “It’s not what we would want to do. What
we would love is a different solution. Right
now, we’re working within the confines of the
options we have.”
Pakkala said they are trying to ease the tran-
sition by providing virtual tours, speaking
with guardians and moving some of the care-
givers from the Neuro Rehabilitation homes
into the skill nursing center.
But the features of the adult foster care
home cannot be replicated due to the size of
the skilled nursing center.
“In the residential program, they have a lot of
customized attendant care that’s able to focus on
very specific needs of the individual patient,”
Pakkala said. There’s a fair amount of activity
around re-entry into the community, very much a
customized individualized program, and they
have a small home setting....[In the skilled nurs-
ing home,] everything is on a larger scale. There
are many more residents in our program.
In adult foster care homes, Judd estimates
that, on average, caregivers work with any-
where from 3 to 5 patients. In nursing homes,
that number can balloon to 10 to 12.
“They don’t have the specialized care and
training for individuals with severe brain inju-
ries that have cognitive needs, behavioral
problems, emotional regulation,” he said.
Teresa worries most about the social aspect
of the skilled nursing facility, where he will
lose the friends he has developed and the
space he is comfortable in. She was told that
she cannot take him outside and he can only
speak with him through a Plexiglas door.
“I worry that he’s going to be left in his
room a lot, alone, because there’s not a living
room for him to be in,” she said. “...He’ll be in
a room with who knows who. It’s scary to
think that you would be in a room with some-
body that’s incompatible.”
In response to the changes to the no-fault
auto insurance law, the state has set aside $
million for those survivors who were in the
system before the new law passed.
But that won’t solve the problems Neuro
Rehabilitation faces. They’ve tried to stay
afloat for the last few months, but they can no
longer continue to operate with the reduced
reimbursement rates.
“Even $25 million, it seems an extraordinary
amount of money, it isn’t going to sustain the
program work in perpetuity,” Pakkala said. “We
want a long-term solution for patients. That
might be a Band-Aid for a bit of time for some
providers, it might help us over the next few
months, but it’s not going to sustain the program
forever.”
Judd has continued to hear people struggling
to access the $25 million, which requires a
lengthy application process. And even if they do
access the money, the funds are capped at
$500,000 per calendar year for each provider, he
said, which cannot sustain the costs of living for
people who require 24/7 care.
“It might help to save a case here or there,
but it’s not going to allow a business that
would otherwise not be operational to sustain
operations,” he said.
Following a presentation on the state budget
at the Tyden Center on Oct. 1, State Rep. Julie
Calley, R-Portland, said there haven’t been
any updates to the auto insurance reform.
And she doesn’t foresee any taking place.
Calley said that she has heard of people
accessing the $25 million and, to her knowl-
edge, “it’s working once we connect them.”
She noted that the state will continue to use the
$25 million as a primary solution. From there,
they will then collect data, she said, and deter-
mine best steps forward.
“It’s actually collecting data and under-
standing – what do these services cost?” she
said. “What are the expenses that are incurred?
Obviously, they need to make something
above that, or they’re not going to stay in busi-
ness, right? So we want to make sure that it’s
a sustainable system that properly supports
these businesses or individuals, depending on
the size of the provider.”
When Teresa heard in August that they were
going to close Troy’s house, she responded by
contacting every state legislator she could
find. She wrote a page-long letter describing
Troy’s situation and asking for help. Then she
sent the letter to 50 politicians, including state
representatives, senators and even the gover-
nor. She spent $20 in postage and mailed them
to the Capitol, but that batch bounced back.
So she sent out another batch. This time, she
sent the letter to each representative’s individual
office and forwarded a personal email to Calley.
“You get desperate, you do desperate things,”
she said. “I don’t know what else to do.”
She hasn’t received one reply.Letter
from
a mom
Troy Hughes before the
motorcycle accident in 2007. His
mother called him “everybody’s
favorite bad boy in Middleville.”Photos
provided by
Teresa HughesTroy Hughes with his mom, Teresa, in Meijer Gardens.Troy Hughes in his room.To the editor:
I am one of the concerned par-ents who has been looking for jus-
tice for the people who paid for
“unlimited care” in the insurance
they purchased. The small photo
at bottom right is Troy Evan
Hughes in 2007 - age 19 -- shortly
after graduation and on his way
up the Comcast ladder.
And here is Troy today after a
classmate hit him on his motor-
cycle on Sept. 20, 2007, with a
pick-up truck. Now Troy must
live his life with a traumatic
brain injury.
After 10 weeks on life support
and two years of therapy, he was
able to at least think and answer
yes / no with the slight movement
of his hand, still able to have
emotions .... but not eat or drink,
not walk or talk, not even able to
scratch an itch or change a chan-
nel on a TV with a remote...but
able to feel, think and love - with
his same old personality.
THANK GOD FOR THE
WONDERFUL CARE OF THE
STAFF AT SPECTRUM
HOMEWARDS NORTH in Grand
Rapids, where he lives. They keep
his limbs stretched out with thera-
py, they keep him healthy, they
bring him on outings, they keep
him showered and clean every
single day, they make his life as
close to a normal life as possible.
Although now I am told, they
may have to close these five
homes they have for brain injured
care, and put my son and many
others into a nursing home setting
- One where they have a quarter
the staff per patient, where they
require only one shower per week
- which if you can’t get to a toilet
- and need to wear a diaper, you
probably would want a shower
daily - don’t you think? And with-
out the physical therapy, he will
be drawn up into a ball by the end
of five or six weeks - from his
brain injury. And what kind of a
life is it if you can never get out
and do anything, such as stake a
walk in a park or go to the fair,
see “your home you grew up in,”
visit the car museum, watch a
movie, etc.
Very sad, especially when you
paid the high premiums of insur-
ance in 2007, which should have
been yours for life. Now Troy
can’t hire an attorney and fight for
the right of this insurance care he
paid for. Troy isn’t expecting any-
one to give him charity - he paid
those premiums. He deserves
what he paid for.
PLEASE HELP HIM AND ALL
THE OTHERS IN HIS
POSITION. Their lives are sad
enough. They deserve better than
to be thrown into an under-staffed,
under-educated (in brain injury
care) facility, and left alone in a
room with no neuro-positive
activities. These people shouldn’t
be treated like they have no value,
and are just being housed until
they die... Troy is an inspiration to
many people, and if there is noth-
ing else he can physically do, he
can pray for people, which he
does, knowing that is his purpose
at this time in his life.
PLEASE DON’T LET THESE
PEOPLE BE FORGOTTEN, THE
QUALITY OF THEIR LIVES
MATTER, TOO.
Please help them keep their
level of care - if for no other rea-
son than to ease the pain of the
family members who love them
and have to watch how hard life is
for them already. It is heartbreak-
ing. The fear of Troy being put
into a low-level care unit -- with-
out the love and expertise he has
now -- is so stressful. Many
brain-injured people such as Troy
are too injured to be brought
home.
There is no way he can safely
be home. Places like Spectrum
Homewards North are a Godsend
to moms like me. We cannot let
them close!
Thank you in advance for any
help you can give in this matter.
God bless.Sincerely,
Teresa & Troy HughesNo-fault reform claims quality of care
Continued from page 1 ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Troy Hughes receives a therapy session at a
bowling alley.A letter that Troy Hughes wrote to his mother, Teresa. Although
he cannot speak, Hughes still has the ability to read and write.