With the help of dedicated Mount Sinai staff—including a creative and calm occupational therapist—patient Meaghan Onofrey has made a smooth transition to life after a stroke.
On December 13, 2019, 40-year-old Meaghan was out for a run in Riverside Park. She remembers needing to suddenly stop, but after that, she has no recollection of the events that took place. According to her husband, Nick, she had collapsed and crawled to a bench, and a passerby called 911. Meaghan was taken in an ambulance to Mount Sinai Morningside, where it was discovered that she was having a stroke. She was transferred to The Mount Sinai Hospital, where she underwent surgery to remove a blood clot from her brain.
Meaghan spent four months at Mount Sinai, initially in the Neurosciences Intensive Care Unit and then in Rehabilitation. Meaghan and Nick praise the medical and rehabilitation teams for their skilled and compassionate work, but have special words of appreciation for the care provided by Occupational Therapy Rehabilitation Specialist Andrea Johnston. Meaghan and Nick laughingly say that Andrea “adopted” them, taking them under her wing, especially during Meaghan’s transition to home, which happened earlier than expected when the Rehabilitation Unit was converted into a COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit.
“Andrea went above and beyond,” Meaghan says. “She made sure we had every piece of equipment we needed for home care and Meaghan’s activities of daily living,” adds Nick. “She came to our house and did a walk-through so we had guidance on how to adapt our environment to align with Meaghan’s needs. She even trained me on how to change Meaghan’s tracheotomy tube, a scary endeavor, to be honest.” Meaghan and Nick speak with one voice when they say Andrea “humanizes people.” “And nothing rattles her, she is Zen-like and is such a calming presence,” Meaghan says. “We joke that we are ‘summoning our inner Andrea.'”
Debra Zeitlin, Rehabilitation Manager at The Mount Sinai Hospital, concurs with Meaghan’s and Nick’s praise. “Andrea is an amazing occupational therapist. She is very empathetic and goes the extra mile for her patients. For example she completes community re-entry with her patients and re-orients them to their environment, which makes discharge and the return to home much more soothing for patients. She is extremely creative in her work and provides great guidance and ideas to her whole team. She is a great mentor to newly graduated occupational therapists. The thing I admire the most about her: She always gives more than 100 percent and is very consistent in her work and embodies all of Mount Sinai’s core values.”