Bruce Miller, 65, of West Penn Township, should have heeded the warning, “Beware the Ides of March,” words spoken in a William Shakespeare play to Julius Caesar before his assassination.

While Miller is alive and well, if he had been a little more cautious on March 15, 2024, he might have spared himself a terrible fall. That accident set off a journey of recovery during which he would experience the continuum of St. Luke’s health care services.

“Bruce Miller was able to get all of the care he needed, right here in our area, because St. Luke’s has expanded the depth and breadth of health care services in this region,” said St. Luke’s Carbon and Lehighton campuses President John Nespoli. “Since St. Luke’s University Health Network joined with the former Blue Mountain Health System, the Network has invested millions of dollars to bring enhanced emergency, primary and specialty health care services to our region, so residents of Carbon and Schuylkill counties, like Bruce, can receive the care they need close to home. All of us at St. Luke’s wish him continued success in his recovery.”

On that day, Miller was carrying a heavy box down a pull-down attic ladder when he lost his balance. Attempting to gain a handhold, he badly lacerated his right hand before landing hard on his left side. After a few minutes, he managed to stand.

“I thought I broke my wrist and it hurt to walk,” Miller said. He called his wife, Karen, and sat on the couch until she returned. With some effort, they loaded him into their SUV and drove to St. Luke’s Care Now in Lehighton as the pain intensified.

“I felt every bump along the way, and it hurt like hell,” Miller said. The Care Now staff triaged his condition and immediately sent him to the St. Luke’s Carbon Campus ER.

An examination, X-rays and CT scans confirmed he had broken his left hip and wrist and cracked a rib.

He was admitted to the hospital the Intensive Care Unit. Orthopedic surgeon Donald Diverio, DO, operated to repair his broken hip. He stayed in the hospital for nine days, during which Miller said he received excellent care, including physical therapy.

But when it was time to be discharged, he wasn’t quite ready to go home.

“I knew I wouldn’t be able to care for him at home,” his wife said. “He was totally incapacitated. He had 11 stitches in his right hand and a cast on his left hand. He was a hot mess. He had to be fed and needed help with everything else. I couldn’t have done what the staff did for him.”

He qualified for short-term rehabilitation and after reviewing their options, they chose St. Luke’s Summit Nursing and Rehabilitation Center because it was close to home and had high patient satisfaction scores, Miller said.

Skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) offer an intense level of services that cannot be easily replicated at home, said Alex D’Antonio, director of nursing. Consequently, many patients, especially older adults, recover quicker and more fully if they first receive rehabilitation before returning home.

Miller, who said he strongly recommends the Summit, enjoyed the experience and credits the staff with helping him get well enough to return home.

After discharge from The Summit, he continued to receive St. Luke’s services to help him fully recover. St. Luke’s VNA provided in-home nursing and therapy visits, and he received outpatient physical therapy at Physical Therapy at St. Luke’s – West Penn.

Miller still experiences pain in his hip due to the fall and years working as a Local 542 operating engineer. In August, he began seeing pain specialist Richa Dudek, MD, at St. Luke’s Spin & Pine Associates in Lehighton.

Throughout his recovery, Miller had a little extra incentive to work harder to speed his recovery.

On July 2, the Millers enjoyed a two-week land and sea cruise in Alaska. But there’s one more trip the couple needs to reschedule, a trip to the Camden Aquarium with two of their grandchildren. They had purchased tickets for March 16, the day after his fall.