Contact: Paul Meznarich
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EAU CLAIRE, Wis. – Spending the day in the Emergency Department (ED) sounds like any person’s worst medical nightmare. But that’s exactly where Jackie Smith wanted to be.
More than 12 inches of snow fell Dec. 9 in Eau Claire.
Smith, a health unit coordinator in the ED, finished her shift at 7 a.m., midway through the region’s first major snow storm of the season Dec. 9. Although concerned about making the 40-mile drive back to her home in Cornell, she was more concerned whether she’d be able to make it back for her next shift later that evening.
So she stayed put — turning an unoccupied room in the ED into makeshift sleeping quarters.
Smith was like many of her co-workers who found ways to outwit Mother Nature to keep the needs of their patients first.
Lynette Becker, a registered nurse who lives in Chetek, rented a hotel room in Eau Claire to make sure she could make it into work the next day to care for her patients in the Critical Care Unit.
Occupational Medicine Supervisor Sue Breneman was helping her husband shovel their driveway at 5 a.m. in order to make the 60-mile drive from her home in Gilman.
“We have businesses and their new hires counting on us,” said Breneman of her department’s work in pre-employment screenings and drug testing. “Our first patient was scheduled at 8:40 a.m., and she was there at 8:30.”
It was an overriding sense of obligation to her coworkers and patients that spurred Radiation Oncology therapist Tara Laufenberg to rise at 4:30 a.m. to ready herself for a two-hour drive from her home in Alma Center while her husband shoveled.
“There’s just a small group of us who do what we do,” said Laufenberg, who administers radiation treatments. “And to our patients, it really is a matter of life and death.”
Of the 35 patients scheduled the day of the storm, 26 arrived for their appointment, Laufenberg said.
Other employees went the extra mile to help their coworkers.
Cyndie Bune, a registered nurse in Medical Telemetry who lives nearby, came in and worked a partial shift until her out-of-town coworker could safely make it in.
For all the inconveniences brought by the storm, which dumped 12 inches of snow within 24 hours, employees still maintained a sense of humor.
“I drove 45 miles problem-free, and then when I pulled into the parking lot behind St. Pat’s (the Catholic church across the street from the hospital), I got stuck,” Laufenberg said. “And I just had to laugh and say, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’”
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In partnership with Mayo Clinic, Luther Midelfort offers a full range of quality medical services, including cardiac and orthopedic surgery, cancer and trauma care programs. Through a network of community-based healthcare providers in west-central Wisconsin, Luther Midelfort provides access to experts close to home.
