The providers and team of FHN affect the lives of so many, by providing expert care from diagnosis to recovery. Here are some of our patients' stories.
After breaking several bones in a terrible UTV accident, Myra Archer Holland of Lanark has regained her strength and mobility with the help of FHN's Physical Therapy team.
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Eager for relief from the pain and stiffness caused by his arthritis, Jim Wenger tried a promising new treatment for osteoarthritis.
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Sam Tucibat woke up with sudden hearing loss in one ear, but the FHN team and HBOt 'tube time' got him back to hearing in stereo.
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Sneezing, runny nose, congestion, drainage, fatigue, and headache are unpleasant for anyone. But Jennifer Newman of Freeport suffered with these symptoms every single day…
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When FHN orthopaedic surgeon Greg Dammann, MD, asked Kimball Sturtevant if he was fine with having FHN’s first VELYS robotic-assisted knee replacement surgery, his patient’s response was enthusiastic…
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When Jeff Lamm was on vacation in Florida, he never dreamed that banging his leg on a boat would put him in the hospital and signal the start of a long healthcare journey…
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When all-things-Irish enthusiast Stephen Lafferty thought his knee needed an overhaul, he didn’t want to count on luck.
Instead, he trusted the professionals at FHN to help him regain his quality of life. His wife, Susan, first noticed his knee discomfort when he had trouble with…
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Dealing with vertigo can be a dizzying experience. Just ask Bill Schramm, Heather Politsch, and Rachel Boatwright.
All three have grappled with the frustrating condition due to different causes. Any way it manifests itself, FHN has strategies to help make the room stop “spinning” for frustrated patients…
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He was walking his dogs on a cold December night, just as he does every evening.
But on this night, there was something different – the middle of Len Carter’s chest ‘felt like a toothache.’
He told himself it was from breathing in the cold winter air…
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Farfalena Rahn’s first name means “butterfly” in Italian. This symbol of transformation and hope well represents the last two years of her life, when she went from relying on a wheelchair to walking again, thanks to strong support from FHN, her family, and her friends. In 2019, Farfalena was unable to walk…
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Football injuries are part of the game – it’s a long, rough season. Even the best of teams, like the Illinois State 1A Champion Le-Win Panthers, deal with broken bones, torn ligaments, and dislocated joints as they battle through their weekly schedules...
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Mary Lynn Trost was eager to get her surgical staples out – all 50 of them – after having a successful hysterectomy for Stage 1A uterine and ovarian cancer at UW Madison hospital. Unfortunately, her incision reopened almost immediately after her stitches were removed, right in the doctor’s office…
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Brad Rothermel’s family calls him “the moon baby,” since he was born July 20, 1969, when U.S. astronauts first landed on the moon. But his “lunar lineage” didn’t give him any breaks when he caught COVID-19 just after their clan’s Thanksgiving gathering last year…
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Dan Malin’s work trip to Michigan took an unexpected detour – he started to feel ill before departing,and then feared he was having a heart
attack while he was driving in Indiana. He rushed to a local hospital...
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It never crossed her mind that she might have blastomycosis. She had never even heard of it! But when Michele Davis got sicker and sicker, she and her family were very grateful that FHN Infectious Disease Specialist Robert Geller, MD, MS, FACP, FIDSA, connected the dots...
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When Amalia Viveros came to visit her son Ramon in Dakota, he was concerned about both her physical and emotional well-being. Suffering with osteoarthritis in her knees for about five years, she was in a great deal of pain. Steroid injections...
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When Mackenzie Biehl was in kindergarten, her mom, Stacy, noticed a bony bump on her feet below each big toe. She took note of it at the time, but figured it was “nothing to worry about.” As time passed, the ‘bumps’ didn’t go away...
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He didn’t know he was exposed to COVID-19, so when Paul Fosler felt tired and “off,” he dismissed it. By day four of his fatigue, Paul’s wife Kristine urged him to get tested and got a referral to FHN’s Acute Respiratory Clinic...
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Being a client at the FHN Family Counseling Center helped Jennifer learn many of the skills she incorporates in her job. “I was a patient before I was an employee,” she shares. “I have bipolar disorder and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and I am not ashamed..."
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COVID-19 or not, babies are still being born - and FHN is working hard to keep the experience safe and exciting for new parents. Take Amy and Scott Trimble, for example. The couple tried for six years to give their daughter, Charli, a brother or sister..."
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Delbert Bunker, Jr., has been a farm worker, a custodian, a maintenance man, and a courtesy driver, but one thing he never expected to be was a cancer patient. When a test reported that his prostate-specific antigen (PSA) numbers were elevated..."
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It wasn't the customary COVID-19 symptoms that sent Colleen Edler to FHN's Emergency Department, but after four days of excruciating headache pain, she knew something was very wrong. She explains, "I had the worst headache of my life..."
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When Brad Gusloff went to visit his son in Colorado, he couldn't keep up with the rest of his family. "I was miserable," Brad explains. "The pain was relentless." He started asking everybody he saw with a cane or a walker if they had knee surgery...
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All it took was a quick slip on the ice to tear Debbie Oppold's meniscus, a disk-shaped piece of cartilage that acts as a shock absorber inside the knee joint. "Every step hurt," Debbie explains, "So I called my family physician...
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It came out of nowhere. With no family history of cancer, no risk factors, and nothing but time on her side, Katy Lartz was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012 at age 30. Her eyes still fill with tears when she talks about it...
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Joe Mastroianni was enjoying retirement from Honeywell with his artist wife, Carolyn, when horrible back pain took him to his then-general practitioner. After referral to a urologist, he got a diagnosis no one wants: His back pain was actually prostate cancer that had spread...
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4 inches wide. 10 inches long. 3 inches deep. That was the approximate size of Brenda Berning’s wound when she came to The Center for Wound Healing at FHN Memorial Hospital. She had complicated ovarian cancer surgery...
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Carol Richards has been fighting cancer for eighteen years, and she takes it all in stride. She is simply not one to sit and dwell. She will be on preventive chemotherapy for the rest of her life. She knows it. She accepts it. And she deals with it...
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Julie Wenzel was in a lot of pain. Her back and hip hurt, making it difficult to walk, and it was cramping her style. A busy woman, she had a long list of things to do...
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It was evening chore time, and Donald Graybill was moving cows in the barnyard, just like he does every day. And then, just like that, he fell. He knew by the numbness in his shoulder and how his arm just ‘hung there’ that it wasn’t good.
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On the morning of April 11, Lori Willging didn’t know what a splenectomy was. Later that day, she had one -- and it saved her life. Lori had gone to work and was sitting at her desk crunching numbers. She noticed a gurgle high in her stomach…
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Valerie Schubert's "normal" day doing missionary work in Honduras includes lots of walking. From inner-city streets to the hills and mountains of rural villages, she and her husband cover many miles a day serving hundreds of at-risk children through their foundation, Casa de Luz (House of Light).
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Before his knee replacement surgery, Jim Kerr couldn't mow the lawn, climb a ladder, or participate in some of his favorite campground activities. TruMatch from FHN changed all that...and now he is doing things he hadn't done in quite some time.
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Josie McDermott heard her knee 'pop' at club soccer practice. It didn’t really hurt, so the determined standout just kept playing. When it started to buckle later, she knew she needed a professional opinion. That's when she turned to FHN orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Greg Dammann.
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