Village Green ‘family’ for former resident once on death’s door
With help of wife and staff Jim Dodd
leaves long-term care
Wednesday, June 29, 2005 -- Craig Anderson
Jim Dodd presented a significant challenge to Village Green nurses and care-workers when he arrived in September 2004.

To say Jim was in ‘rough shape’ would be a massive understatement. Admitted by his wife Virginia, who could no longer care for him, the 57 year-old retired schoolteacher entered Village Green in a barely conscious state, suffering from years of severe alcohol abuse. He was diabetic. He had intermittent withdrawal strokes, significant cognitive impairment, and could barely speak.

“I was basically in a coma for almost two years,” says Jim, who at one point was convinced he didn’t belong there and tried to escape by hopping a fence. But staff and spousal support, physiotherapy and medication, allowed a rehabilitated Jim to leave the home on April 1, 2005.

“In some ways it all seemed like a bad joke,” he laughs.

Jim is repaying the Village Green staff and resident community by volunteering three times a week, taking residents to meals, doing odd jobs, and presenting gifts to staff and community volunteers in the form of his favourite hobby: stepping stones.

“I think they like seeing me,” he says, especially his favourite female residents he has playfully dubbed the ‘Silver Sisters.’

“And it surprises me, because I probably irritated quite a few people when I was here.”

Just before being transferred to Village Green, Jim did a short stint at Hotel Dieu in Kingston. He claims it fortunate he was conscious enough to sign over medical responsibilities to his wife Virginia, who he says has certainly seen ‘better or worse” with him in their marriage of 36 years.

Jim faced his long struggle with alcoholism with periodic resistance, saying that he managed to be an AA member for 15 years, and at different periods quit for a year. Alcohol-induced brain damage, a factor he has tried to overcome with regular dictionary use and tricks to spark his memory, hasn’t prevented Jim from being a social butterfly – with sharp wit on display – at his thrice weekly trips.

Jim recently completed a battery of cognitive and psychological tests, and although the results are still forthcoming, they represent to him the tremendous turn around in his life made possible by the comprehensive treatment he received at Village Green.

The test’s administrator conceded that it is likely that he has some lasting impairment to cognitive function, but she was impressed that he has retained a high level of intellectual acuity.

For DOC Jackie Maxwell, who arranged it so that Jim could stay at Village Green free-of-charge, it was his initiative and a concerted supportive measures approach that enabled Jim to make such a quick turnaround.

“It’s amazing,” she says.