Families of patients at Abu Dhabi rehabilitation centre dream of return home

ABU DHABI // Families of those being cared for at the Cambridge Medical and Rehabilitation Centre dream of the day when they can take their loved ones home.

Although the care given is of the highest standard, families take comfort in the belief that their father’s, daughter’s or sister’s stay is only temporary.

The centre, with branches in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, shares that hope and aims to rehabilitate patients so they will be able to live independently.

“Hope is not merely a buzz word,” said Dr Howard S Podolsky, the centre’s chief executive. “It is at the essence of how we approach every single one of our patients.”

“We transform hope into meaningful clinical outcomes whereby patients can return to their homes and the families to resume their lives. We transform hope into meaningful clinical outcomes whereby patients can return to their homes and the families to resume their lives.”

Nada Al Ansari’s son Ali underwent a tracheotomy soon after birth and had a feeding tube inserted through his nose because he could not breathe or feed on his own.

Doctors at a government hospital told Mrs Al Ansari to take Ali home and to keep him on oxygen and feeding tube. She refused.

“I moved him here for rehabilitation. It was a better option than the one [the government hospital] gave me.”

Today, Ali spends all day off the ventilation machine and is eating with a small spoon. “I hope in six months I will take him home,” his mother said.

Salma Al Ghaithi, whose father suffered from a series of strokes two years ago, also hopes to take him back home to Al Ain one day.

“Doctors told me it was impossible that he would survive without the ventilator,” said Ms Al Ghaithi. However, after two years of rehabilitation her father can now go for hours on end without the machine.

Not all of the patients at Cambridge are able to leave. Those who have suffered acute trauma and are completely dependent on machines will remain in care for life.

Mai Al Mansouri’s elder sister Afra is one such patient. The 29-year-old suffers from multiple sclerosis and four years ago was paralysed from the neck down.

Her lungs and digestive system stopped working and she is completely dependent on life support machines.

“Where will we go?” said Mai. “We can’t take her home because she needs constant care which we can’t provide. Here they move her muscles, change her, bathe her, feed her and are always around if anything goes wrong. This is now our home.”