Health

Veterans Memorial Hospital, together with Helping Services of NE Iowa, will begin offering the ‘Baby and Me - The Basics’ class Tuesday evening, March 14, from 5-8:30 p.m. in the hospital’s Large Conference Room.

Helping Services’ Certified Child Passenger Safety Technicians Barb Fjelstul and  Rachel Weber will teach the basics of how to correctly secure children in their car seat and getting the seat secured in the vehicle. Barb Fjelstul, also a breast-feeding educator, will guide participants through the challenges and rewards of breast-feeding and provide techniques to ensure baby is getting the most benefit from nursing.

Rachel Stone, RN, is a labor and delivery nurse who will give expecting mothers education on breathing techniques and coping with pain during labor.

Memorials were recently received by the Veterans Memorial Health Care Foundation in memory of Earl Haas by Chuck and Lois Votsmier, John and Shelly Elliott, Robert and Karen Fossum, Mr. and Mrs. James Harris, Ardie Kuhse, Mr. and Mrs. James Jarmes, Mike and Gwen Lloyd, Don and Connie Nagel, Eric and Stephanie Palmer, Chelsea Rodas and Donna Wood.

Memorials were also received in memory of Angela Kula by Al and Fern Rissman and Wayne Rissman; in memory of Margaret Wikan by Margie Schulte; in memory of Helen “Tiny” May by Larry and Nancy Straate; in memory of Marlene “Mickey” Cook by Chuck and Lois Votsmier; and in memory of Grace Peterson by Lyle and Barb Wilkes.

In addition, a donation was made to the Foundation by Chuck and Lois Votsmier in honor of JoAnn Peake’s 90th birthday.

All donations to the Health Care Foundation are tax deductible. Memorials and donations can be sent to 40 First Street SE, Waukon, IA  52172.

The Veterans Memorial Hospital Diabetes Support Group will hold its next meeting Thursday, February 16 at 10 a.m. The meeting will be held at Veterans Memorial Hospital in the Large Conference Room, located on the lower level of the hospital.

This diabetes class is open to everyone who has diabetes or who has a friend or loved one with diabetes.  For more information on the Diabetes Support Group, call  Angie Mettille, RN, at Veterans Memorial Hospital at 568-568-3411.
 

Ness Pumping and Porta Potty Rentals hosted its sixth annual Breast Cancer Awareness Walk Saturday, October 29 in the Waukon City Park to raise funds for breast cancer awareness and detection. Breast Cancer survivors were asked to sign a pink porta potty sporting the breast cancer ribbon, sweatshirts were distributed and refreshments served.

The family awarded the proceeds raised from that walk to Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waukon to be used towards the new 3D mammography machine at the hospital that was just installed in early October. The $2,750 donation helps Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) finance this 3D mammography machine. This machine is clinically proven to significantly increase the detection of breast cancers, while simultaneously decreasing the number of women asked to return for additional testing.

February is Heart Month.  Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) continues to encourage the public to learn the American Heart Association’s “Hands Only CPR.”  This simple way of performing CPR is very easy to do and effective for the victim.

According to the American Heart Association, sudden cardiac arrest is a leading cause of death with nearly 400,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occurring annually in the United States. An average of 89% of people who suffer an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest die because they don’t receive immediate CPR from someone on the scene.  

The American Heart Association has found Hands Only CPR to be as effective as conventional CPR for sudden cardiac arrest at home, at work, or in the public - doubling or even tripling a victim’s chance of survival.

The next LifeServe Blood Center blood drive will be held Monday, February 6 from 12-5 p.m. at the First Baptist Church in south Waukon. The LifeServe Blood Center supplies Veterans Memorial Hospital with its blood and blood products.

Memorials were received by the Veterans Memorial Health Care Foundation in memory of Jim McCormick by Gladwin and Darlene Anderson, Dan and Traci Byrnes, Frank and Patty Goltz, Mary Ann Hager, Gary and Marlene Houg, Maury Mooney, Diane Regan, Richard and Sue Schulte, Chuck and Lois Votsmier and Brad and Erin Berns.

Memorials were also received in memory of Cathy Wagner by Lansing Emergency Medical Services, Dave and Sandy Lyons, Maury Mooney, Russ and Mary Jo Meyer, and Brad and Erin Berns.

Memorials remembering the life of Mary Clauson  Regan were donated by Larry and Nancy Straate, Diane Regan, and Chuck and Lois Votsmier.

Additional donations were also made to the Veterans Memorial Health Care Foundation by Ken and Jill Lampman, Duane and Marian Meier, Ruth Boden, Allene Gillespie, LaVonne Lodor, Stan and Mary Straate, Mary Miller and Carol Moe.

For the last twelve years, Russ Hagen of rural Waterville has provided assistance to hundreds of individuals in the tri-state area as a Senior Health Insurance Information Program (SHIIP) volunteer at Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH). He has helped many with their Medicare questions when joining the program and each year during the annual open enrollment period. Russ also delivered many “Welcome to Medicare” seminars at the hospital for those preparing to join a Medicare plan for the first time.

Russ initially completed an extensive six-day training program to become a SHIIP volunteer, and other trainings as needed, to continue his service at Veterans Memorial Hospital for over 12 years. He recently retired from this service at the end of 2022, making him the longest running SHIIP volunteer in the hospital’s history of being a SHIIP sponsor.

by Jill Fleming, MS, RD/LD

The New Year is here and most of us are interested in adding “lose a few pounds” to our list of goals for 2023. It sounds simple enough, but where to begin? The key to releasing excess weight, almost effortlessly, is to eat real food and stop snacking. A great goal is to eat real food 75-80% of the time. The term “real food” may be defined differently according to other health professionals, but my definition is:

• Any whole food that has only one ingredient such as “whole grained rolled oats” or no ingredient label at all, such as fruits and vegetables
• Packaged foods made with no more than three unrefined ingredients
• Dairy products like milk, unsweetened yogurt, eggs and cheese
• Wild-caught seafood and fish
• Lean meat, chicken, pork, beef; ideally locally raised
• Dried fruits, nuts and seeds.

The LifeServe Blood Center reported a great number of donors at the January blood drive with 44 total units collected which saved or sustained up to 132 lives.      

Here are some facts from the LifeServe Blood Center explaining just how much blood many patients need for their illness.

• Cancer patients can use up to eight units of blood a month.
• Bone Marrow Transplant patients can use up to two units a day.
• Cardiovascular Surgery patient can use between two and 25 units.
• Liver Transplant patients can use up to 100 units.
• Auto/Trauma Accident patients can use  from five to 100 units.
• Premature infants can use from one to four units.
• Burn victims case use up to 20 units of platelets.
• Heart surgery patients can use from three to eight units of red cells and from one to 10 units of platelets.
• Organ transplant patients can use 10-30 units of blood.