"I love living, I love life, and I love people."

Finding Peace at Home

She and her husband, David, retired to Durham, where their son Jason (Jay) Williams was a star player for the Duke Blue Devils men’s basketball team before helping to lead the NBA’s Chicago Bulls prior to becoming an NBA analyst for ESPN. “If it wasn’t for Jason making the decision to come to Duke, I do not think I would have been blessed with the opportunity to extend my life thanks to the amazing health care I have received.”

While Althea is grateful for the two kidney transplants she has received, the new kidney has led to recurrent infections that have impacted her heart, requiring five hospitalizations over the past year. “I was in the hospital so they could monitor me and get me out of the dilemma,” says Althea. “My numbers were improving and I wanted to be at home.” She got her wish thanks to Enhanced Home Health for COVID Care (EHHCC) designed to keep patients out of the hospital and instead receive enhanced care and telemonitoring at home by a Duke Hospitalist and dedicated Home Health nursing team.

The nurses are so professional and knowledgeable and show so much love...

“What an amazing program,” she enthuses. “I had the opportunity to talk to doctors every day. The nurses took care of things like my Hickman line and dehydration issues and taught David how to administer antibiotics to me through my port. The nurses are so professional and knowledgeable and show so much love. If they didn’t know the answer to a question, they knew how to seek the source for the information.”

“To be at home, in my own space, lie in my own bed, sit on my back porch breathing fresh air, to be with my Rottweiler, Heaven— it was mentally, spiritually, and physically healing,” she says. “The medicine was delivered right on time to my back door. And David and I knew that if there was an emergency, someone would respond right away.”

“I would prefer to be at home and be monitored than to take up the space in a hospital bed,” she says. “It’s your spirit and soul that make a difference in getting better. And this enhanced home health program really worked for me.”

A certified Zumba instructor and liturgical dance instructor, Althea anticipates a return to teaching these movement activities to women 55 and over. “I’m also looking forward to spending more time with my son, his lovely wife and my grandbabies,” she says. “I’m grateful to this program which had an impact on my life forever.”