Feb 11, 2022 Reporting from Niles, MI
A lasting mark - Steve Phelps
https://www.spectrumhealthlakeland.org/how-we-compare/our-patients/Detail/a-lasting-mark/?utm_source=A_lasting_mark&utm_medium=PatientStory_Landing&utm_campaign=InternalPages
Feb 11, 2022
Feb 11, 2022
SpectrumHealth Lakeland
After decades of driving back and forth between their condo in Chicago and their weekend home in Coloma, Michigan, Steve Phelps and his husband decided to build a larger home in Coloma and take a step toward permanently relocating.
When COVID-19 hi
A lasting mark - Steve Phelps
SpectrumHealth Lakeland
https://www.spectrumhealthlakeland.org/ResourcePackages/SpectrumHealth/assets/img/sh_white_logo.png
A lasting mark - Steve Phelps
Feb, 2022
After decades of driving back and forth between their condo in Chicago and their weekend home in Coloma, Michigan, Steve Phelps and his husband decided to build a larger home in Coloma and take a step toward permanently relocating.
When COVID-19 hit, they decided to self-quarantine in Michigan.
“The joke is that we’ve just never left,” said Steve.
Retired from a 40-year career in banking, which included an international advisory role and travel to far-flung countries and continents, Steve has been staying closer to home and volunteering locally. Each Tuesday, he volunteers as a docent at the Gilmore Care Museum and each Thursday he serves as a guest service ambassador at Krasl Art Center in St. Joseph.
Throughout the move and getting settled, Steve and his husband discussed a lingering concern: the availability and quality of health care. The doctors and hospitals they were used to visiting in Chicago were no longer a short walk or drive away. What would Southwest Michigan have to offer? Even Steve’s friends back in Chicago voiced concerns.
But just as COVID-19 influenced their plans in 2020, it also put their health care concerns to the test.
One day in January 2022, Steve began to feel sick. Although he had gotten vaccinated and boosted, and wore a mask in public, he wondered if he could have a breakthrough COVID-19 infection. An at-home test showed Steve was positive for the virus.
That evening, after his cough worsened, he went to the emergency department at Spectrum Health Lakeland Watervliet Hospital. The next day he was transferred to the critical care unit (CCU) at Spectrum Health Lakeland Medical Center in St. Joseph and placed on a ventilator.
Although an average 80% of Spectrum Health patients currently on ventilators have not been vaccinated, Steve was suddenly one of the few who was vaccinated and ventilated in the CCU.
“My nurse Steve was the first person I remember after being admitted,” said Steve. “He knew not only was I scared of dying, but I was in extreme pain from the IVs placed in my hands.”
Despite communication being difficult, and Steve’s inability to speak or gesture much, nurse Steve made every effort to help and connect with his patient. With the aid of a computer monitor, nurse Steve painstakingly pinpointed the precise location for repositioning the IV in Steve’s arm.
“Most would say ‘it’s just a needle’ but for that one act of going beyond the call of duty, I’ll be forever grateful,” said Steve.
Steve remained on a ventilator for a week. His condition slowly improved until he was able to breathe on his own again. He was then discharged home to continue his recovery.
“I was home less than one day and the mark from the IV completely healed,” said Steve.
The memory of nurse Steve’s kindness that first night in the CCU will linger much longer.
And those concerns about finding quality health care close to his new home in Coloma?
“I’m very happy to report that Southwest Michigan should be extremely proud of the quality health care provided by Lakeland,” said Steve. “Each and every doctor and nurse who cared for me showed teamwork and passion. We should be proud of the health care system available here locally and thank the doctors and nurses for the hard work they do each and every day.”