See Me Now: Program reunites patients and emergency department doctors
Ed Frederick thanks Dr. Elizabeth Werley at the first “See Me Now” program for helping him during a trauma he suffered last spring.
By Carolyn Kimmel
Edward Frederick plans to retire soon with full use of both legs – something for which he will always be grateful to staff at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, and he wanted them to know it.
The Londonderry Township man had just dropped off his wife at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center for a doctor appointment last spring when he had an accident in the parking lot that caused extreme blood loss.
“I knew I was in big trouble,” he said. “I managed to drive myself to the front door of the hospital, but I lost consciousness while I was being taken in. The next thing I remember was being wheeled from the emergency department to the operating room.”
Dr. Elizabeth Werley, an emergency department physician, oversaw triage care that ultimately saved Frederick’s life. Within 15 minutes of arriving, he was headed to the operating room for leg surgery.
“We were able to do something that we trained for years to do, and our rapid response team worked together so smoothly,” Werley said. “Otherwise, I’m confident he would have died, but that day, we saved somebody’s life.”
April 17, 2019 at 10:00 am pennstatemedicine Leave a comment
Twenty years in medical school? What’s so mini about that?
From left, “Sir” Robert Griscavage, Bonifacio Dewasse, Robert Hairston, Ruth Miller, William Miller, Rebekah Miller, Perry Emes, Marylou Martz and Joan Decker celebrate 20 years of participating in Mini Medical School.
By Bill Landauer
In her seat near the front of Junker Auditorium at Penn State College of Medicine, Ruth Miller chuckled.
Teams of her younger classmates were using CPR to revive two mannequins simulating cardiac arrest. The exercise was meant to show the importance of teamwork in a crisis.
“But how do you learn to think on your feet?” someone asked.
Ruth thought of a joke.
In her 81 years on the planet, among all the lessons about art, music and medicine she’s collected, Miller knows comic timing.
For 20 springs, Ruth has been coming to the College of Medicine Mini Medical School — the program in which faculty and full-time students share their knowledge with the community. She might move a little slower than when she was a 61-year-old freshman, but Ruth is just as engaged as ever and is, by now, an expert class clown.
How do you learn to think on your feet? “You stand up a lot,” Ruth said.
April 10, 2019 at 10:00 am pennstatemedicine Leave a comment
From medical education to medical controversies, humanities are key, new chair says
Appreciating the humanities is an integral part of preparing to practice medicine, says Department of Humanities Chair Bernice Hausman.
By Carolyn Kimmel
Few medical schools have a humanities department, which makes Penn State College of Medicine — the first medical school in the nation to institute a humanities department — the perfect match for Bernice Hausman, its new chair.
“For the work I do, this is a dream job,” said Hausman, who holds a doctorate in feminist studies and critical theory and came to the College of Medicine in November 2018 from Virginia Tech, where she chaired the English department. “Generally, medical schools may have one course in the humanities. Not many have an entire department.”
Appreciating the humanities is an integral part of preparing to practice medicine, Hausman said. “The ability to understand social context and social relations is critical for a doctor because medicine is, after all, a people-oriented profession,” she said.
Penn State Health doctors help Ephrata baby born with rare condition breathe easier
Natasha Himes comforts her son Knoxley as he recovers from surgery.
There was nothing unusual about Natasha Himes’s seventh pregnancy or delivery. Like her previous six, both were easy and uncomplicated. While all of her other children were born in a hospital, the Ephrata woman wanted to have this baby at home.
Dec. 19, 2018, started out as any ordinary day. Himes’ children, ranging in age from 2 to 13, completed their homeschool lessons, and the midwife visited. The baby wasn’t due until Christmas, but he had other plans.
At 3:53 p.m., Knoxley came into the world, weighing 8 pounds, 8 ounces, and 21 inches long. “I was in labor just 53 minutes,” Himes said. “The midwife walked in as I was pushing.”
When the midwife saw Knoxley had a cleft palate, he was transferred to the neonatal intensive care unit at WellSpan Ephrata Community Hospital where he was diagnosed with Pierre Robin syndrome. According to the National Institutes of Health, the rare condition occurs in about 1 per 8,500 births. (more…)
Taking PULSE: on 10th anniversary, educational outreach program gets more diverse
The 2018 PULSE poster session winners celebrate their prize-winning presentations. From left are Ian Hammond of Central Dauphin East High School, Nivedita Dubey of East Pennsboro Area High School, Avni Sanghvi of Central Valley High School, Jerusha George of Hershey High School, Dalia Shvartsman of Harrisburg Academy, Gellila Asmamaw of Manheim Township High School and Alexis Singleton-Robinson of Harrisburg High School SciTech Campus.
By Bill Landauer
Three high school students sat in the front row of a Penn State College of Medicine lecture hall and listened to Madison Goss.
They actually paid attention. That can be rare in a room full of teenagers, Goss has found — even well-accomplished ones handpicked to be part of college-level program designed to introduce potential doctors and nurses to the field.
“These students were so attentive to my lecture and weren’t playing on their phones or computers like some of their classmates,” she said.
The image stuck with Goss, who wanted these students, in particular, to hear her. Though she was excited about working with all 100 participants, the three girls had been part of a new group. The Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion had provided transportation so they could participate in the PULSE program. The office works to increase diversity at Penn State Health and Penn State College of Medicine.
The rides to the Hershey campus are helping the program get back to one of its key goals — helping a greater variety of people learn about medicine.
March 20, 2019 at 10:00 am pennstatemedicine Leave a comment
Are you up-to-date? Penn State Health colorectal screening survey gains national attention
Bobbie Mann of Lebanon, Pa., right, has been getting an annual colonoscopy from Dr. Thomas McGarrity since 2008.
By Carolyn Kimmel
Life could look a lot different for Mike Hamonko than it does, thanks to a screening colonoscopy that many people turning 50—the recommended age for average-risk screening—dread and often postpone.
Lucky for him, the Harrisburg-area resident didn’t attach any particular aversion to the procedure—or the colon-cleansing process the night before—so he scheduled it right away.
“The prep was annoying, but annoying isn’t that bad, considering they can catch something as bad as cancer,” said Hamonko, whose primary care physician recommended the screening test.
He awoke from the procedure to the surprising news that he had a precancerous tumor.
“Mike’s case shows the importance of the family doctor making the screening recommendation and the patient following up,” said Dr. Thomas McGarrity, gastroenterologist at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. “Mike had no symptoms and no family history of colon cancer.” (more…)
Lifesaving help from across the globe
Jim Miller, center, toasts his donor, Stefan Eichert, right, with John Moore, left, the businessman who invited Miller to accompany him on a trip to Germany.
By Carolyn Kimmel
Sometimes the worst things in life can turn up gifts that far outlast the trial. That’s what Jim Miller tells people.
The Red Lion man was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome—a pre-leukemic syndrome—in October 2012 and given the choice of a stem cell transplant or other treatment alternatives that may have resulted in about two more years of life. He chose the transplant.
Although the wait for a match lasted a year—during which time chemotherapy and 27 blood transfusions achieved partial control of the disease—Miller never expected his donor would hail from across the globe.
February 27, 2019 at 2:30 pm pennstatemedicine Leave a comment
