Having personally worked in healthcare for many years, I know that there are heroes who step up and give lifesaving care daily, but it wasn’t until my husband had a recent illness that I experienced the personal impact of this.

My husband and I both know Mary Ellen from working with her for many years in the operating room. We have both found her to be a fantastic nurse to work with, responsive to both patient and surgeon needs. This nomination is not for the care that she provided to one of our patients, but instead for her role in a recent event that likely saved my husband from a much more severe situation than what occurred.

My husband was running in the Lake Region Healthcare 10-mile run and suffered severe heat stroke. As a spectator, she recognized that something seemed off and that he missed a turn in the race around mile 9. She called out to him, realized that he was delirious, got him to stop racing, and got him the emergent care that he needed. After arriving at LRH via ambulance, it was found that he had gone into multi-system organ dysfunction – a severe effect of the heat stroke. He fortunately went on to have an uneventful, quick recovery which we know was due in part to Mary Ellen’s recognition of an urgent situation and intervention. I will be forever grateful that she was where she was that day and that she went out of her way to provide amazing care to someone in need.