Seventy-three-year-old John Werries put off getting a baseline colonoscopy for years, even declining the simple colorectal cancer screening kits his wife offered to obtain for him during the screening kit give-away events presented annually by Jacksonville Memorial Hospital. “I was…
During the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, older people represented the majority of hospitalizations and deaths—leading some young adults to feel the virus couldn’t affect them. But that’s a dangerous attitude, says Memorial Health…
Cutting-edge data science that guided Memorial Health System’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic this year will serve patients well if cases rise in coming weeks and months, a Memorial official says. “The pandemic has forced innovation in a way that…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Suffering from the flu is a costly and potentially dangerous experience, which is why getting vaccinated against the influenza virus is so important. “Some people think the flu is like a common cold, but really, the flu is a lot…