Hillcrest's blog

Hillcrest neotalogist and Oklahoma Safe Sleep Champion, Dr. Lisa Owens, is asking parents in Oklahoma to take the pledge to put their baby in a safe sleep environment every time. We know parents love their babies and would never want to put them in danger, but accidents can happen if babies are not sleeping in a safe environment.

Utica Park Clinic breast surgeon Dr. Laurie Flynn says Tuesday’s announcement of Angelina Jolie’s decision to have a double mastectomy resulting from the discovering Jolie has the gene mutation, BRCA1, is positive news for all women. “I am so glad she went public with her gene mutation,” says Dr. Flynn. “Now maybe more women will have the conversation with their physician to determine if they should be tested.”

Is the food on your plate safe? Often the staple of most dinner recipes, ground meat and chicken are among the riskiest foods to cause severe illness. The Center for Science in the Public Interest released a report finding ground meat and chicken pose the greatest risk to consumers for hospitalization and cause the most severe illness of all foodborne illness cases studied. Of 33,000 cases studied, the meat and poultry products posing the lowest risk include chicken nuggets, ham and sausage.

According to the American Heart Association, 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women are at risk for heart disease. One major risk factor leading the charge, researchers say, is our lack of regular physical activity. To combat these statistics, National Walking Day encourages companies to enlist their employees to wear their sneakers to work and spend at least 30 minutes walking April 3. Walking is free, easy to start, and enjoyable as a sociable exercise with friends and co-workers.

On a Tuesday morning at 9:15 a.m., Celina Johnson, a teacher and mother of two, sits in Surgery Waiting at Hillcrest Medical Center. She and her husband woke at 3:30 a.m. that morning to make the hour-and-a-half drive from Colcord, Okla., to arrive at the hospital by 5:45 a.m. for his scheduled back surgery.