NEW PALESTINE — Jenny Ritchey was living a fulfilling life: enjoying retirement, helping out at school sporting events, keeping statistics during games and tutoring students in her spare time.
Then the unthinkable. She fell. Ritchey broke her ankle, contracted COVID-19 during rehab and now her life has been turned upside down.
The former Doe Creek Middle School eighth-grade math teacher taught in New Palestine schools from 1978 until retirement in 2010. Now she not only needs regular kidney dialysis, but a place to rehab and community support.
Ritchey, 69, New Palestine, endured two surgeries after she broke her ankle in early November. After that, she went to Springhurst Health Campus in Greenfield for rehabilitation. Just as she was about to leave to to return home, Ritchey was among those who caught COVID-19 while at the facility.
The virus caused her already-serious Stage 3 kidney disease to intensify into needing dialysis every three days, she said. Ritchey was so sick at one point hospital officials told her sister she probably wasn’t going to make it through the night. She was put on a ventilator after she contracted pneumonia and sepsis.
While Ritchey defied the odds, and is doing better, she’s currently a patient at St. Vincent Hospital, where she is receiving daily kidney treatments. She’s also looking for a place to rehab or maybe even a retirement center, a new place to call home.
The whole life-altering situation shocked the former teacher, who taught local students for more than 30 years. Ritchey never had any idea how quickly her life could change for the worse.
“The thing is, I never dreamt all of this could happen to one person all at once,” Ritchey said from her hospital room at St. Vincent. “People need to be aware of how fast your life can change.”
Ritchey will turn 70 in July. She was having issues with her blood pressure in November when she got dizzy and fell, setting off the chain of difficult events.
Her goal is to get back home where she can care for herself.
“Right now they’re looking for a place that has a dialysis chair for me,” Ritchey said.
Joan Cline is a former colleague and one of Ritchey’s close friends. She’s been trying to help her get back on her feet. Cline noted while Ritchey had some underlying health issues before she broke her ankle, she was healthy enough to be on her own and enjoyed her life.
“Now she has trouble sitting on the side of the hospital bed without her blood pressure plummeting,” Cline said. “We just want to see her get home or in a place where she can get better.”
To make matters worse, she has had trouble with Medicare payments and now faces extended time in a long-term care facility.
Cline and others have set up a gofundme account for Ritchey at https://gofund.me/e7977ad0. However, what she needs mostly, Cline said, is to have well-wishes, callers and visitors once she gets into a rehab facility.
Donations will help pay the out-of-pocket medical costs of dialysis transportation, long-term skilled nursing care and rehabilitation.
