Paducah man received national recognition for work in speech and language pathology

PADUCAH, Ky. (KFVS) - A speech and language pathologist from Paducah, Ky. is one of the 10 HomeCare Hero finalists in 2022 chosen to represent the best of the industry in the national HomeCare magazine.

John Park has been a speech and language pathologist at Baptist Health and Home Care for 17 years and has 29 years of experience in the field.

According to a release from Baptist Health Paducah, Park received a nomination for the honor from Baptist Health and Home Care Director Tammy Sullivan for his passion to always strive to improve his patient’s lives.

“John is exceptional every day,” said Sullivan. “But in this particular case, he went above and beyond visualizing a better future for this patient because many people didn’t think his goals were possible because of associated risks. John had to encourage the doctors and the patient to work with him to take a leap of faith--and it turned out to be very successful.”

The one particular case that Sullivan mentioned concerned a 48-year-old patient who was told she would likely never eat or drink again and would live the rest of her life on feeding and tracheostomy tubes following the removal of a malignant tumor.

The patient had been unable to communicate vocally for more than 18 months because of her tracheostomy.

After Park worked with the patient for a month and a half, she was able to speak with the valve and was swallowing solid foods, liquids and medications without difficulty.

According to the release, the patient has since been discharged from the speech therapy program, and next steps include the potential removal of the feeding tube and tracheostomy.