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Your donation meant life-saving equipment was available for Turrell
When Turrell Smith went to Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center, his right lung was already necrotic and deflated. His sister Daeja remembers the first days of his illness well.
“When he came in, he was breathing on his own, but they put him on bypass and then they intubated him,” she recalls. “It all happened so fast. In the course of two days, we had to look at other options.”
Fortunately for Turrell, the other option was an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) life-support machine. With your generous donations staff were trained on this technology.
For nearly two months, the ECMO technology allowed Turrell’s lungs to heal while the life-saving device worked in their place to keep his oxygen levels high. Daeja, a nurse herself, monitored his progress every day he was on the ECMO device.
Both Turrell and Daeja are thankful their local hospital had the ECMO technology and trained staff available when they needed it most.
“I’m really grateful they had the care I needed at Maryview,” Turrell said. “A lot of people asked if I would have gone anywhere else and I told them no. No telling if I would have gotten the same care as I got there.”
Daeja knows it was your generosity that saved her brother’s life.
“I was glad he did go to Bon Secours,” she said. “If he’d gone somewhere else, it could have been different.”
“The ECMO machine was definitely a life-saving machine for him, and we thank you for your generous donation of training the staff to use it.”
Your generosity put Turrell in the most capable hands possible
Donations to Bon Secours Hampton Roads Foundation saved Turrell Smith's life by providing area hospitals with special medical equipment and training. Listen to him describe his experience in his own words.