Sometimes, how we healthcare is by changing the game and redefining what’s possible. For more than 36 years, Herman “HF” Middleton and his wife, Regina, have shared life side by side. They married in 1989, the same year Regina began her career as a nurse at Our Lady of the Lake. Over the decades,…
Sometimes, how we healthcare is the strength of a community that never stops caring. On an ordinary Saturday evening, Jason Moore walked into work at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, just like he had countless times before. As a security guard assigned to the night shift, Jason took pride in keeping the…
Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center is taking a generational step forward in emergency care with a more than $55 million renovation of its emergency department. The multi-phase project will expand capacity, integrate advanced technology and improve both patient flow and the caregiver experience. Construction is set to begin in fall 2025 and…
In August 2021, Dillon Major was doing everything he could to stay out of the hospital. He had gone four years without even getting so much as a cold. But then COVID struck, and he knew this time was different. “With COVID, I just kept getting worse. I couldn’t even walk up and down the…
Kristen Degelman thought she just had the flu. She and her daughter had gone on vacation, and when they came home, both tested positive. But after five days on medication, her daughter felt fine. Kristen didn’t. A nurse practitioner in the emergency department at St. Dominic, Kristen knew what sepsis looked like — or at…
John was sitting in his deer stand in Mississippi when he first noticed a small lump beneath his jawline. At 69 years old and a practicing pharmacist with more than four decades of experience, he assumed it was nothing serious, likely just a lymph node still reacting to a recent respiratory virus. “I had just…
Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System is ushering in a new era of surgery with the addition of nine da Vinci 5 robotic systems, the most advanced generation of surgical robots available today. Equipped with artificial intelligence, responsive touch and real-time collaboration tools, these machines represent a powerful leap forward in precision medicine and…
Cancer survivorship doesn’t begin when the last treatment ends. It begins the moment a person hears the words, “You have cancer.” That’s the philosophy guiding oncology survivorship navigator Jimmie Wells, MSN, RN, OCN, and her work at St. Dominic Hospital. Cancer survivorship is a lifelong journey that requires compassion, education and connection every step of…
When Katina Nelson woke up with chest pain that startled her from sleep, she didn’t immediately panic. “I kind of ignored the symptoms,” she admits. But by the next evening, the pain returned, tingling and insistent. With her healthcare background as a nurse with Health Care Centers in Schools at Our Lady of the Lake…
When Addie Hester, a retired educator and proud Baton Rouge grandmother, first stumbled upon the Geaux Get Healthy Clinical Program at Our Lady of the Lake, she wasn’t looking for a miracle. She was looking for something practical. Something local. Something that could help her feel better in her own skin and on her own…
Two years ago, Christine Braddy, an Information Services Support team member at Franciscan, faced a life-changing reality. On Sept.11, 2023, she stepped on the scale and saw a number she could hardly believe. “A little less than two years ago I weighed more than I ever have, and I was ready for a change,” Christine…