Project Liberty is doing what its name intends – allowing short bowel syndrome patients to un-tether from cumbersome IV attachments through the careful administering of special diets and medications.
Bioscrip, a national provider of specialty home health solutions, recently gave $60,000 to infuse a much-needed boost into this life-altering program, which is under the direction of Michael Rothkopf, MD, director of the Metabolic Medicine and Weight Control Center.
“Our goal is to liberate patients from intravenous nutrition,” says Dr. Rothkopf.
His patients are people whose intestines are severely damaged or diseased. Their only recourse – until Project Liberty was launched – was to live their entire lives bound to an IV.
“The donation from Bioscrip is particularly generous. They definitely see the bigger picture and how patients could have a better quality of life and fewer complications living this way,” says Dr. Rothkopf.
Three patients have realized success, with one achieving complete independence from intravenous nutrition. A second has been able to convert to a less complicated stomach tube, and a young mother was recently able to reduce her seven-day-a-week tether to three days.