ANITA Jupp says she arrived at the John L. Grove centre "a vegetable".
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A debilitating stroke had paralysed the left side of her body, and she was depressed and emotional after more than a month at the Launceston General Hospital.
She didn't think she would walk again, and feared she would end up in a nursing home.
"You don't know what it's like to have a stroke," Ms Jupp said.
"You lose your dignity, you lose your independence, you lose everything.
"That's what I lost, but I got it back here. Thanks to John Grove, and the marvellous staff."
Ms Jupp yesterday added her voice to the campaign to save the 20-bed, long-stay rehabilitation facility.
Fixed-term Commonwealth funding for John L. Grove expires on June 30, and the state government has not guaranteed its future.
Ms Jupp said that next week, about six months after she was admitted to John L. Grove, she would walk out of the facility and return home.
She said that if she had stayed in hospital, she would still be unable to take care of herself.
"I'm positive I'd still be taken to the toilet, washed, dressed, and be like a baby again," she said.
Clinical nurse educator Lani Murray said that without John L. Grove, clients like Ms Jupp would most likely stay at a general hospital ward, where staff might not have time to give them the same level of support.
Ms Murray said that when the facility first opened, it received a client who had been in hospital for more than a year.
"The [hospital] nurses need to prioritise acute medical needs, and more often than not they don't have time to be able to help people on their rehabilitation," she said.
"We've got a very strong team of nurses and allied health professionals and hospital assistants, who all work together to be sure that the clients are having their physical, emotional and rehabilitation needs met."
Ms Murray said staff were trying to maintain their professionalism without discussing the potential closure with clients, but everyone was worried.
She had one man ring his bell to ask what would happen to him if they closed the facility.
"They are quite anxious about their ongoing care, and of course we've got 54 staff here who've got families and mortgages and bills to pay, and without any certainty," she said.