With a combined 37 years of service in law enforcement, Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Tom Lillard and Sgt. Tracy Lillard know something about close-knit work environments, where colleagues feel more like family with each passing year. When Tom Lillard…
Larry Mariage was in a hurry to make his appointment to undergo an MRI at Passavant Area Hospital. In his rush, Mariage, 71, a Type 2 diabetic who had been fasting for nearly 10 hours in preparation for his test,…
Medical emergencies happen, even in a pandemic. So it was for 9-year-old Jack Crews, who woke up on the morning of April 30 with a stomachache that became progressively worse as the day went on. After a telephone call with…
Amazing. That’s how Nicole Loehr describes her experience at Decatur Memorial Hospital where she and her husband, Zachary, recently welcomed their first child. “With COVID-19, I honestly was really scared,” said Nicole, a 25-year old nursing student who has worked…
“I thought I was in good health,” says Andrew Bone, 59, a self-employed truck driver who lives in Mt. Zion with his wife, Jill. But that self-assessment changed on Friday, April 10. “As usual after I got home from work,…
A few hours into her recent shift at Memorial Medical Center, registered nurse Heather Reiss was caring for two COVID-19 patients in an intensive care unit and learned two more patients would be brought to the unit soon and placed…
Technology helped Deborah Leahy cope with the loneliness of a two-week hospital stay during the COVID-19 pandemic. From her sixth-floor bed at Memorial Medical Center, the 67-year-old Springfield resident was able to see her daughter, who lives in Florida, for…
Have you started negotiating with your toddler yet? Or stood there in public as your child throws a temper tantrum on the floor? You aren’t alone. “Navigating and learning how to provide discipline from toddlerhood through the teenage years is one of…
Lincoln’s Roger Marten, 70, had just returned home from a Saturday breakfast with family when he felt sick to his stomach, like he was catching the stomach flu. When the left side of his face started to hurt, he told…
Tim and Lib Granzeau consider the people at Memorial Medical Center (MMC) family. And for good reason. In January, the pair celebrated the one-year anniversary of Tim’s cardiac procedure at MMC, which utilized a nationally groundbreaking stent procedure led by…