State-of-the-art technology improves speech in nursing homes

Jun. 16—GLENS FALLS — Kristine Whitcomb lifted her chin as Anna Niedbalski attached electrodes to her throat.

Niedbalski, a speech language pathologist, then slowly spooned helpings of a thick apple juice into Whitcomb's mouth.

"One, two three, swallow," Niedbalski said over and over again as they both watched a nearby laptop that was keeping track of how many times Whitcomb attained an "effortful swallow."

May was considered "Better Speech and Hearing Month," a designation that often goes unrecognized. But Glens Falls Center highlighted Niedbalski, 27, and the Synchrony Dysphagia Solutions Program that speeds up the recovery swallowing process for patients and residents at the center.

"We do a lot of different things that people have no clue about," Niedbalski said as she worked with Whitcomb, 58.

The South Glens Falls resident suffered some minor cognitive deficits after a brain cancer diagnosis and surgery about 10 years ago. She became a patient at Glens Falls Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing after a recent fall that resulted in a broken hip.

Shortly after entering the nursing home, she started to have difficulty swallowing, had a choking episode and lost a dramatic amount of weight. After a moving X-ray, it was realized her liquids were going down into her lungs, putting her at a high risk for pneumonia.

That's when Niedbalski stepped in.

"She has actually come a very long way, I think because she's finally getting the nutrition that her body needs," Niedbalski said. "When we first started, her memory was terrible, she couldn't really make her needs known as well."

The idea of "swallowing with effort" is often lost of people who take the ability to swallow for granted.

"Communication is such a big aspect of life," Niedbalski said, "and when you can't communicate, it's kind of like someone just dropped you in a foreign country and said, 'good luck.'"

Niedbalski also works with stroke victims, people with Parkinson's disease, dementia and multiple sclerosis.

"A lot of times with strokes specifically, and with a lot of other diseases, it does affect the muscles that are involved in swallowing, whether it be in the oral phase — so either their jaw is weak, their tongue is weak — or in the pharyngeal phase, which is basically everything in your throat — so if your hyoid is weak or if your vocal chords don't close all the way."

The hyoid bone floats in the muscles in the throat. It has to go up and down to successfully complete a swallow.

"So a lot of times those muscles are always affected during strokes because it's a lot of the cranial nerves that affect those," Niedbalski said. "So you do definitely see a lot of swallowing deficits with people who have had strokes as well as language deficits."

Speech therapy requires the pathologist to connect the puzzle pieces to eventually get the patients back home, which is the ultimate goal.

"You can physically be doing really well, and cognitively if you're having trouble, you may not be able to go home so that's what keeps a lot of people here too," she said. "So it's not just the swallowing quality of life that I enjoy bringing back, but also helping people to be as independent as possible, to go back to living their life as they once were."

Gretta Hochsprung writes features and hometown news. She can be reached at 518-742-3206 or ghochsprung@poststar.com.

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