Skip to main content

Pat Summitt's Battle with Dementia

Pat Summitt is well-known for being an exceptional basketball coach for the Lady Vols at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, as well as being a coach for the women's USA olympic team. In 2010, Pat began showing subtle signs of dementia, but she ignored the signs for another year. In 2011, she was diagnosed at age 59 with early-onset dementia. She went to Mayo Clinic when she began experiencing symptoms including showing up to a game while leaving her car running and calling the wrong terms during the game. She also reported signs such as feeling disoriented when waking up in the morning. She reported that numbers were especially difficult to understand and deal with at this point. After her diagnosis, Pat was determined to continue coaching at UTK; however, after about a year she was encouraged to retire from her position as head coach. She then started the Pat Summitt Foundation to raise money and awareness for research about early-onset dementia. During the middle stages of dementia, an occupational therapist can help the client through apartment modifications including installation of extra locks on doors, as well as installing a monitor to control the temperature of the shower water. In the late stages of dementia, OT focuses on caregiver education and keeping the client comfortable in his or her last days of life. Pat was a very strong, successful woman, and her story shows just how tragic dementia can be. 
Retrieved from: http://stevejonesshow.com/pat-summitt-dies-at-64/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Journal Article Review

The article I chose to review was titled  The Benefits of Group Occupational Therapy for Patients With Parkinson’s Disease. I found this article through AJOT, and chose it because I am very interested in Parkinson's Disease interventions. This study looked at how progressive physical symptoms of Parkinson's disease affect participation in activities of daily living.  The aim of the study was to see whether a group rehab program using an OT approach specifically designed for IPD, in association with ideal medical management, could maintain the functional status of these patients.  A two group experimental design was used in this study. Individuals with Idiopathic Parkinson's disease were randomly assigned to either an experimental group receiving group occupational therapy intervention, or a control group receiving only medicinal treatment.  Immediately after randomization, the  experimental group received 10 sessions of group occupational therapy....
Post a Comment
Read more

Brain Injuries and Heartbreaks

In today's class we began to learn about traumatic and non-traumatic brain injuries. Brain injuries can be caused by a variety of factors and can affect a victim in numerous ways. It can be very difficult to work with a brain injury patient because oftentimes they do not show physical symptoms, but instead emotional, social, and/or cognitive symptoms. It is fascinating to me how a brain injury can completely change a person's personality, however; this is what also makes this type of injury most traumatic for the loved ones of the victim. When you have a loved one who has suffered from a brain injury, it is possible that he or she is altogether not the same person you have always known. Though physically they may look the same, they are not emotionally or socially the person you loved before. We listened to a podcast before class about a nurse named Dawn who was attacked by a hospital patient, resulting in a TBI. The would lash out in frustrating situations and also had terribl...
Post a Comment
Read more