Let me tell you about the best kept secret in Perth Amboy.

This last January, I was taken by ambulance to Raritan Bay Medical Center, Perth Amboy Division, because I had a high fever and a strange condition whereby my left leg was swollen fever and a strange condition whereby my left leg was swollen at least three times its usual size. I thought it might be phlebitis or a blood clot. But it was something much worse called necrotizing fasciitis. This disease is set in motion when flesh eating bacteria becomes active in one’s body.

Necrotizing fasciitis is a disease which, if not treated medically in timely fashion, most likely will cause death. I was told by a physician that if I had waited two or three more days before calling the ambulance I would have died. In short, this was nothing that could be treated lightly.

After three operations on my leg and three weeks stay in the ICC and CCU, I was discharged and transferred to a unit in the hospital building on the second floor known as LTach. This unit his housed within the hospital, but is an independent entity. “When you are a patient at LTach, you are their patient and not a patient of the hospital. With no offense intended against the hospital, I have never received in the high degree of professionalism and care given to me at that facility. If not for the wonderful care I received at LTach, the three surgeries would not have mattered. Healing is an essential part of the process, such as having to learn to walk again.

My post-surgical status was such that I required a great deal of attention and care. I literally had a hole in my leg that one could make a fist and fit in inside. And, of course, I was on IV antibiotics for weeks. LTach ensured that I received my medicines in a timely manner, made sure my meals were nutritious in order to help the healing process, and tended to my bandages, which had to be changed frequently because of the accumulation of various bodily fluids from beneath.

Everything that could be done was done in order to prevent re-infection and to promote healing. And as mentioned above, I had to learn to walk again, and physical therapy was provided through LTach, which was successful again, but LTach made sure I went home walking instead of being taken away on a stretcher. I should also mention that the hours are long; there were only two shifts, from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m., and from 7 p.m. until 7 a.m. To me, it’s remarkable that nurses and other medical personnel can work 12 hour shifts. And some of the specialists treating me actually made to time in their day to see me at 2 a.m. or thereabouts.

In short, the personnel at LTach care for their patients. They are not just statistics to them, as the to the bureaucrats at the hospital who want to rush you out as soon as possible because their ability to make a profit from a long-term stay decreases with each passing day. At LTach, which is also pressured by Medicare and other health providers, only release you if you are truly able to function, if you are on the road to full recovery.

I would like to thank everyone who cared for me by name, but ther is always the chance that one or two names are accidently omitted. So let me thank everyone from the LTAch unit, the most efficient medical facility operating in the City of Perth Amboy, and the most professional and caring institution in the city and county, if not the entire state.

Very truly yours,

Jack M. Dudas, Esq.

Former City Council Member,

City of Perth Amboy