Big band singer puts her trust in care facility

Injured in a car crash, Connie Haines, 81, will leave a hospital May 10 for therapy at Mease Manor.

By EILEEN SCHULTE
© St. Petersburg Times
published May 1, 2002

For three years, big band singer Connie Haines has been doing 60-second spots on WGUL Music of Your Life radio station plugging Mease Manor.

The gutsy 81-year-old star who did duets with Frank Sinatra and sang for five presidents never thought she would need its continuing care 24-hour nursing center.

But on May 10, she will move into the facility to receive physical and occupational therapy to help her overcome serious injuries she suffered in an April 9 car accident.

"We consider her part of the Mease Manor family," said Diane Kelleher, executive secretary at Mease Manor, a continuing care retirement community. "She's a spokesperson."

On the afternoon of the accident, Haines and her friend, Judith Haimes, were making their way home from an Artie Shaw concert at Ruth Eckerd Hall when police say Haimes pulled her Lincoln Town Car out in front of a car driven by Tommy M. Dasho, 36, of Holiday.

Haimes was cited for failure to yield; Dasho has been charged with misdemeanor DUI.

Haines was badly hurt in the crash, her C-2 and C-3 vertebrae fractured.

Her injuries were so severe that doctors were forced to bolt an uncomfortable 15-pound steel brace to her skull to immobilize her upper body.

She must wear it for three to four months until she heals.

On Friday, Haines, who has been staying at HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital in Largo since the crash, was told she would have to leave the facility in two weeks.

She had no idea where she would go. She could not return to her Clearwater Beach home wearing the halo. Also, she was worried insurance would not pay for her care. After a story appeared in the St. Petersburg Times concerning her plight, Haines said representatives from nursing care facilities throughout Pinellas County called or stopped by HealthSouth, offering to take her.

But she decided to go to Mease Manor because she knows the people there and feels comfortable with them, Haines said by telephone from her hospital room.

Now that she knows where she will be receiving care, her spirits are much better. But the best news is "the pain stopped," she said.

She has been weaned off morphine and is down to one Darvocet pain pill every four hours, she said.

She plans to perform again in the fall.

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