Acute Inpatient Rehabilitation in Watertown Helps Couple of 65 Years Heal Together
Larry and Janet Burch have been married for 65 years. It’s safe to say they are most comfortable when they are together. That’s why, after a car accident landed them in separate hospitals, Samaritan Medical Center did everything it could to reunite the pair.
“The weather was bad,” Larry said, recounting their accident in January 2026. “It was snowing hard, slippery and all that. We had just went grocery shopping and pulled out to the intersection for the light. We turned and saw a car coming at us – that’s all I remember.”
The Burch’s vehicle was struck hard on the passenger side, where Janet was seated. She suffered a severed spinal column in her neck, a brain bleed, two broken collarbones, several broken and cracked ribs, and a cyst rupture in her kidney. As for Larry, he cracked several ribs and sustained a stomach injury, which required two feet of his small intestine to be removed.
“So, that’s about it!” Janet said with a laugh. She and Larry, despite their extensive injuries, remained grateful and in good spirits throughout their recovery.
“We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, I guess.” Janet said. “But I feel like God was with us because we survived it.”
The pair was initially taken to Samaritan Medical Center together, but it was quickly determined that Janet needed to be taken to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse for additional care. After celebrating their 65th anniversary the day prior, this separation was not what Larry and Janet could have ever envisioned.
“They took me down there and he was up here and it was difficult,” Janet said. “They were all working to get me back here and boy was I ever relieved to be back in my hometown. Back to see this guy.”
Samaritan’s Patient Admissions Coordinators worked with Upstate University Hospital to bring Janet to Samaritan’s Acute Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit (ARU) as soon as she was able, where Larry was waiting for her with open – albeit bruised – arms.
“We laugh and joke, but they’re on top of it,” Larry said. “They [the ARU team] make you feel comfortable and you never overdo it. They make you feel welcome.”
Janet agreed, “When you get out of the [physical therapy] room, you feel better, you really do. And the doctor is so good, he’s watching over everything.”
Samaritan’s ARU program is a rigorous one, with multiple rounds of therapies per day. It’s hard work, especially for the amount of injuries Larry and Janet sustained, but they were up to the task.
“I think the services here are perfect,” Janet said. “They’re doing a good job. They’ve been helping so much – the doctors and nurses. I can’t make a complaint about anything, they are superb and I keep saying, if there’s anybody that can get me back on my feet, it’s going to be here because they’re good. They really are.”
“I think the services here are perfect…if there’s anybody that can get me back on my feet, it’s going to be here because they are good. They really are.”
— Janet Burch
Even on the hard days, Janet says she felt supported physically and emotionally by the staff.
“I had a muscle spasm in my back one night,” she recalls. “I had pain in my back and it emanated down and it scared me. But they came in right away and I looked up and it was like seeing angels over me! I started crying and it was one of those things – it was all emotional – and I had them crying with me.”
With the help of Samaritan’s caregivers, Larry went home first. Janet wasn’t far behind him. They both have some healing to do, but they have each other to lean on, and they still have Samaritan. The pair will use Samaritan’s Home Health and outpatient Physical Therapy services to continue their road to recovery.
“Believe me,” Janet said. “Anyone that needs this kind of care: come here. We can tell you it’s well worth it.”
Originally published in October 2026.