When you work in health care, you always have patients you will never forget. For Hope Robertson, MSW, a social worker in case management on the oncology floor at Hillcrest Medical Center, it was a patient who said, “Here she comes again, Little Miss Sunshine.” Exasperated by her diagnosis and hospitalization, the patient was understandably…

If you are familiar with the signs of a stroke – one side of the face drooping, weakness in the arms and difficulty speaking – then you know it is important to seek immediate medical attention. When patients arrive at emergency departments exhibiting these symptoms, patients, family and emergency medical personnel think of stroke first…

Losing weight is many times much easier said than done. There are more questions than answers it seems. What changes should you make to your diet? How often do you need to exercise? What type of exercise is best? What if a current medical condition is an obstacle you don’t know how to overcome? We…

The reality is harsh for women who suffer a stroke. First, stroke is the third leading cause of death for women. It is the fifth leading cause of death for men. Second, women who suffer a stroke are more likely to live alone when they have a stroke, resulting in more women living in long-term…

At 5 o’clock in the morning, Phyllis Ross, registered American Medical Technologist (AMT), 68, arrives at Hillcrest Hospital Cushing and starts her day in search of answers. “It is my job to get the chemistry analyzer up,” she says. “I do the maintenance and run all the controls to get everything ready to go for…

In health care we are either treating disease or trying to prevent it. Are we doing enough of the latter when it comes to stroke? “No,” declares Medical Director of the Oklahoma Stroke & Neurological Institute  at Hillcrest Medical Center and interventional neurologist Dr. Andre Fredieu. “Nearly 80 percent of strokes can be prevented by…

Do you want to get healthy by exercising but feeling unmotivated? It can be easy at times to find excuses to avoid the gym, but a simple reminder might be all you need to stay on track this year. A study conducted by Stanford University found that people who were regularly encouraged to exercise by…

This is the time of year we think of bundling up and adding an extra blanket at night to stay warm. However, colder winter months signal an increased risk for babies of going to sleep at night and never waking up. It is a frightening reality for the parents of babies who get tangled in…