Four years ago, Marcia “Diann” Beimfohr, 75, was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic lung cancer. Fast-forward to January 2019. Diann was again diagnosed with cancer; this time she had surgery to remove her left adrenal gland and kidney. A few…
A 56-year-old Jacksonville woman says her life was forever changed by a kidney transplant at Springfield Memorial Hospital. The March 23 procedure, which involved a kidney from a deceased donor, freed Denise Hickox from exhausting dialysis sessions to stay alive…
Memorial Health System has launched a major expansion of telehealth to provide safe and convenient outpatient services when an in-person visit isn’t required. Two-way, real-time video visits, which began on a limited basis in April, are available for patients of…
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…