One day I woke up and my knee felt bone to bone. I couldn’t walk.
After two years of unsuccessful doctor visits and physical therapy, I found Hillcrest South. Finally, I had someone willing to help me and figure out the cause of the problem.
My therapist, surgeon and medical team all wanted me to get well, and my therapist went out of his way to help in any way he could. That’s hard to find.
I’m a mom of three boys, so my husband and I were shocked when our doctor told us we were having a girl. I asked several times, “Are you sure?”
Even without his tall stature, endoscopy technician Clay Gay would still stand out. “I like to laugh, make fun of myself – anything to make you feel comfortable,” he admits of his outgoing personality which he says is a perfect fit at Hillcrest South. “When patients come to the hospital, they’re nervous. I like to make them laugh. It calms them down and makes them feel at home.”
On the morning Gary Nickel noticed a small blister on the bottom of his left foot, he did not know that in weeks he would be facing a serious infection and an amputation.
“I noticed my foot was getting a little red and puffy, but it wasn’t too alarming, so I really thought nothing about it,” says Gary. “Three weeks later, I woke up and the inside of my foot exploded basically overnight. It was just raw skin and my big toe was black.”
I’ve visited the Hillcrest South ER on three different occasions for three separate health issues. After my first visit in 2009, I knew I wanted to stay with Hillcrest South for all of my medical needs. The hospital’s quality of care is second to none.
It happened so quickly. I was with my husband at his doctor’s appointment and stepped outside because I couldn’t catch my breath. My inhaler offered no relief. Suddenly, I felt myself sliding down the wall. Gasping for air, a passerby dialed 911 and I was transported by EMSA to the Hillcrest South Emergency Department.
“Everything was brand new,” Hillcrest South senior patient representative Joe Caperton describes of his first days at work in a hospital environment. “I got upsized out of a job with a bank when our team was replaced by a call center.”
Sherry Ervin knows what it takes to be at the bedside of a loved one in the hospital. Her husband, Gary, has heart disease and had his first open heart bypass surgery in 1999 at Hillcrest Medical Center. Now under the care of Oklahoma Heart Institute cardiologist Dr. Robert Smith, 17 years later, it was time for a second bypass surgery. They scheduled the procedure at Hillcrest South. “We’ve had so many experiences with Hillcrest South,” says Sherry. “The care we have received there has been absolutely phenomenal.”
