• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About KVH
  • Pay My Bill
  • Contact Us
  • Events & Education
  • Careers
  • Foundation
  • Show Search

KV Healthcare

MENUMENU
  • Clinics & Specialties
        • KVH Cardiology
        • KVH Dermatology
        • KVH ENT & Allergy
        • KVH Family Medicine – Cle Elum
          • Addiction Medicine
          • Anticoagulation Clinic
        • KVH Family Medicine – Ellensburg
          • Addiction Medicine
          • Anticoagulation Clinic
        • KVH General Surgery
        • KVH Geriatric Nurse Practitioners
        • KVH Home Health
          • Home Infusion Services
        • KVH Hospice
        • KVH Internal Medicine
          • Anticoagulation Clinic
        • KVH Neurology
        • KVH Occupational Medicine
        • KVH Occupational Therapy
        • KVH Orthopedics
        • KVH Pediatrics
        • KVH Physical Therapy
          • Aquatic Therapy
        • KVH Speech Therapy
        • KVH Urgent Care
        • KVH Vascular Surgery
        • KVH Women’s Health
        • KVH Workplace Health
        • KVH Wound Care
  • Hospital Services
    • Cardiopulmonary Services
      • Diagnostic Testing
    • Emergency Department
      • What to expect upon arrival
      • Ouchless ER
      • Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners
    • Family Birthing Place
      • What to Expect
      • Birth & Family Education
      • Lactation Services
      • 4th Trimester Resource Center
      • Pregnancy & Infant Loss
    • Imaging Services
      • Bone Densitometry
      • Computerized Tomography (CT)
      • Digital Fluoroscopy
      • Echocardiography
      • Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
      • Digital Mammography
      • Radiography (X-ray)
      • Ultrasound
    • Laboratory Services
      • Standing Orders
      • Sample Collection
    • Nutrition Services
      • Nutrition Consultation
      • Diabetes Self-Management
      • Nutrition Classes
      • Diabetes Support Club
      • Nutrition Resources
    • Pharmacy Services
    • Surgical Services
      • Preparation for Surgery
      • Children & Surgery
  • Patients & Visitors
    • Checking In
      • Patient Policies
      • Patient Safety & Security
    • Visiting
    • Billing
      • Online Bill Payment
      • Price Transparency Tool
      • Bills from Other Providers
      • Insurance plans accepted at KVH
      • Insurance vs. Self Pay
      • Washington Health Plan Finder
    • Medical Records
    • DAISY Award Program
    • Patient Stories
    • Patient Portal
    • Quality of Care
    • Retail Pharmacy
  • Find a Provider
  • KVH News
  • Pay My Bill
  • MyPatientPortal
Hide Search

Home Health

Skip Little

Skip Little

HealthNews · Nov 21, 2012 ·

Skip Little

When Skip and Suzanne Little moved their family from Florida to Ellensburg, they came looking for a small college town that would be a good place to raise their six children.

But when Skip faced a health crisis, the couple – both psychology instructors at Central Washington University – found something they hadn’t counted on: highly skilled in-home health care that helped them through a daunting time.

After repeated bouts of diverticulitis, Skip had robotic laparoscopic surgery last spring to remove part of his colon. The relatively new procedure is minimally invasive and typically involves less down time than conventional surgery. The procedure isn’t offered locally, so Skip turned to a Seattle hospital. Days later he was home; a few days after that, back in the classroom. 

Then came a check up in Seattle. An MRI showed that the area where his colon had been reconnected was leaking and infected. Skip was rushed to emergency surgery where doctors cleaned up the infection and placed tubes in his abdomen to continue draining it. Because his colon couldn’t be reconnected at that point due to the infection, doctors brought the end of it up to a stoma, an opening in his abdomen where a colostomy bag is attached to collect his waste. 

“I was told I would have been dead within an hour without the surgery,” he says. “If I’d gone back to Ellensburg that day I wouldn’t have made it. So we had an angel on our shoulder.”

Two weeks later, Skip went home, forty pounds lighter, drainage tubes still in his body, and with his incision unhealed because of the infection. He wore a colostomy bag and, too weak to climb the stairs to his bedroom, slept on a couch in the family room. 

Enter Kathy Honeysett, a nurse with KVH Home Health. Operated by Kittitas Valley Healthcare, the service features a team of nurses and therapists who provide medical care and rehabilitation services to homebound patients. The program includes 24-hour-a-day on-call nursing services.

“She’s the whole package – tremendous knowledge and skills, tremendous empathy,” Skip says, recalling how Honeysett taught Suzanne to change his dressings, drain the tubes and empty his bag. She also served up steady doses of encouragement that things would improve.

“Without that, I think I would have withered,” Skip says. “There were just too many things going on. It was the perfect storm.”

Over time, what began as daily visits from KVH Home Health became less frequent. But an unscheduled visit one weekend last summer proved critical. Skip was under the weather. He called Home Health. Nurse Sally Henning responded and sent him to the emergency room. Diagnosed with pneumonia and a pulmonary embolism (blood clot), a potentially life-threatening situation, he was hospitalized and placed on blood thinners.

Now teaching part-time, Skip hopes to have surgery to reconnect his colon this coming spring. First though, his pulmonary embolism has to clear up. Meanwhile, he voices appreciation for Home Health and Hospice at every opportunity. “It’s wonderful thing to have,” he says. “It’s one of those things that you have that you don’t know how wonderful it is until you need it. To me they’re angels.”

Primary Sidebar

Footer Top 1

HRSA National Health Service Corps Site

Footer Top 2

603 S. Chestnut Street - Ellensburg, WA 98926
509.962.9841

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Footer Top 3

Footer Bottom 1

Download the MyPatient Portal App
Apple Store Google Play Store

Footer Bottom 2

  • About KVH
  • Careers
  • Board of Commissioners
  • Contact Us
  • Foundation

Footer Bottom 3

  • Our Locations
  • Hospital Services
  • Clinics & Specialty Services
  • Patients & Visitors
  • Events & Education
  • Press Releases
  • KVH Legal Information

Footer Bottom 4

Google Translate