Heroes of All Kinds

 

We recently celebrated Hospital Heroes who help to bridge the gaps in healthcare by providing exceptional care to their patients and their families, and who, through a deep desire to serve and connect, have left an indelible mark on their communities. They are specialists and nurses as well as volunteers, program directors, social workers, and surgeons. What follows are a series of profiles of these heroes.

Charlotte Lisco ,  RN, CWON at KaiserPermanente Fontana Medical Center, provides consultation and care to patients that have wounds and ostomies. She collaborates with the front line nurses and physicians to ensure that these patients receive the most current evidenced based care, which promotes healing and health. Charlotte lives the KP Nursing Vision:  She advances the art and science of nursing in a patient-centered healing environment through her professional practice and leadership.   Extraordinary nursing care.  Every patient.  Every time. But her heroics don’t end with her professional feats. Earlier this year, Charlotte was attending an event for her sons’ baseball team.  During the meeting one of the attendees starting complaining of chest pain, and collapsed.  Charlotte jumped into action, alerted the emergency response system, and started CPR.  Charlotte continued to perform CPR on this gentleman for over 19 minutes, until the Ambulance and Paramedics arrived.  Even though she became extremely exhausted. The patient was transported to the hospital, still unresponsive, and it was determined that he had a fatal heart rhythm.  He was taken to the OR and a pacemaker was inserted. This man is alive today because of Charlotte's actions.

 At Providence Holy CrossMedical Center, Yvonne Gaffney is the Director of perioperative care and cardiology services. In this role, Yvonne knows and understands her patients’ worries and deepest fears. She counsels patients herself and mentors her team to know each patient to ease their way. As a professional, she is a critical thinker who analyzes the big picture, then creates a plan - for patients and their families. She helps friends through rough times and follows through, making sure they find the right doctors, understand medications and answer truthfully when she asks how they’re doing. Yvonne constantly gives of herself, and lives the Providence Mission of compassionate care to the poor and vulnerable. A few years ago, that giving took on an even greater scope. Yvonne joined a group from Providence in an annual trek to Mexico to learn about conditions and to help building housing in a small Tijuana village. So inspired, she recruited a group that return on their own each, advancing that mission. When Providence planned its first surgical mission to Guatemala, Yvonne arranged for the medical supplies for the team. “You have to have that inner drive,” said co-worker Patty Mayberry. “You have to want to give more back than you ever receive. She knows her strengths and she offers up this expertise without hesitation and embodies the emotional well-being of all.”

Precious Querubin is the Co-Project Director, Community Health COPA Program at ProvidenceLittle Company of Mary Medical Center San Pedro. Precious is committed to practicing the Providence core strategy: Creating Healthier Communities, Together. She believes this happens by collaborating, by brainstorming and by leading as her team creates and operates outreach programs in underprivileged areas of the South Bay. She develops and oversees sustainable programs that teach children fitness and nutrition in communities where obesity rates, diabetes rates and other chronic health issues are epidemic. Precious works in community benefits where hospital proceeds fund outreach to the poor and vulnerable. Her main responsibility is Creating Opportunities for Physical Activities, which trains teachers to teach PE at schools in lower-income areas. It is Precious’ mission to work in partnership with schools and other organizations to interact directly with children and their families to help ensure they are NOT patients. Precious has taken her drive to improve community health global. On her own time, she has visited India where she worked directly with orphans, AIDS patients and leprosy patients isolated from the community. She polished the nails of prostitutes and retired ones, reaching out to offer hope in a country marked by its caste system. Close to her Long Beach home, she volunteers at a nonprofit program for families experience hardship – some homeless, some parents trying to kick their drug habits and all seeking help for their children.  Even on the job, she reaches beyond – creating movie nights to bring the community together, partnering with public and nonprofit agencies to help get families out together. She is a hero at home and away.

National Health Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving and enhancing the healthcare of the underserved by developing and supporting innovative programs that can become independently viable,

provide systemic solutions to gaps in healthcare access and delivery, and

have the potential to be replicated nationally.