Although I had taken a birthing class and previously delivered at WakeMed, I had no idea the Mothers’ Milk Bank was there, let alone that it provided much-needed breast milk to so many NICU babies. On November 7th, 2017 that changed. At 39 weeks gestation, during the early stages of labor, my daughter’s heart stopped […]
Category: Personal Stories
Erin Leanhardt: My Experience as a WakeMed Mothers’ Milk Bank Donor
My fourth child, a beautiful sweet baby girl, Lyra Noelle, was placed into our arms last October. I was so relieved labor was over, yet one look in her tiny face told me something was different from my other children. “Down Syndrome” were the two words not yet spoken by anyone in the delivery room, […]
WakeMed ENERGIZE! Because Not Every Child is an Athlete
Tara, a fitness instructor, personal trainer and mother of three learned just as much as – if not more – than her daughter from WakeMed ENERGIZE!, and we are so pleased that she shared her experience with us. Below is Tara’s story. Have a story you’d like to share with us? Email us: info@wakemed.org and […]
Patient Profile: Christopher Perrott
ERAS Cardiac aims to improve recovery and prevent surgical complications by standardizing the care of heart surgery patients – before, during and after surgery. Comprised of more than 20 individual steps that may have minimal impact on their own, once combined have proven significant improvements in the recovery process for surgery patients. Working 12-hour days […]
Olbin’s Journey: A Teenage Bariatric Surgery Story
Weight Loss Surgery for Teens: How A Comprehensive Program in Raleigh, North Carolina Helped an Overweight Adolescent Achieve Real Results You just can’t do it on your own all the time. That’s the lesson 19-year-old Olbin Andino Castro has come to learn through his weight loss journey. With the support of family, friends and his medical […]
Prioritizing Patient Care in WakeMed Emergency Departments
Download a printable version of this blog post. I immediately volunteered to assist Christopher Fortin, (director of Emergency Services at WakeMed North Hospital) with the implementation of the Nurse First admission process when he joined the WakeMed team in September of 2017. What is the ‘Nurse First’ Approach? In Nurse First approach (sometimes referred to […]
Meet Sapphire, the Diabetes Alert Dog
Download a printable version of this blog post. Three weeks after Jacob turned 3 years old, we started to notice that he wasn’t behaving like himself. He was whinier than normal and cried at a moment’s notice, where normally he was content and easy going. Jacob also started to drink water incessantly. He’d go through two […]
Amniotic Fluid Embolism: Harmony’s Story
Harmony and Ian VanGundy were anxiously awaiting the birth of their third child in September 2017. Like their other two children, Allistair, age 3, and Gannon, 15, they were going to deliver at WakeMed, but this time they were going closer to home to the new WakeMed North Hospital in North Raleigh. Harmony was nine […]
Caregiving with Confidence
How WakeMed Home Health helped Cleola Davis manage her mother’s health The right home health team and technology have an unexpected benefit: They boost the well-being of family members as well as patients. Cleola Davis, the daughter of 94-year-old Sarah, was overjoyed to learn this. After a fall, Sarah, who also suffered from heart failure, […]
WakeMed ‘Take 5’ with Yanni Maris
Sometimes, not saying anything and just being there is the right thing to do that can make someone feel cared for, loved and not alone. Recently, I had a patient who was very sick and had been hospitalized for almost a month, yet the treatment team still could not find the right explanation for her […]
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