Three-month-old Nathaniel Corso may be the tiniest patient to participate in the best tradition in college sports. Nathaniel, from Washington, Iowa, was in the stabilization room in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at University of Iowa Health Care Stead Family Children’s Hospital during the Iowa-Wisconsin football game on Nov. 2. It was a night game and, as is Hawkeye Wave tradition, the…

Donna Dolezal, MSN, RN, a nurse manager in the Ambulatory Surgery Center at our university campus, was recognized with a DAISY Lifetime Achievement Award for her dedication to the field throughout her career. One might think that after 38 years as a nurse, Donna Dolezal, MSN, RN, has little left to learn. But Donna Dolezal wholeheartedly disagrees.

There’s often a sense of magic under the Friday night lights and even more so when a player becomes a champion. For high school senior Nathan Schiesl, it’s a moment of wonder that was almost taken from him. Nathan helped Dubuque’s Wahlert Catholic High School win the Class 3A state football championship this November, a first in the school’s history. A placekicker and punter, he made all seven…

University of Iowa Health Care Medical Center once again ranks among the nation’s top hospitals for maternity care according to U.S. News & World Report. The medical center on the university campus is once again listed as a 2025 High Performing hospital for Maternity Care. This is the highest award a hospital can earn as part of U.S. News’ Best Hospitals for Maternity Care annual study. U.S. News…

For years, cancer had its way with Linda Jacobs. The DeWitt, Iowa, woman was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. She had a lumpectomy to remove the tumor only to have a different type of cancer develop in the other breast a few years later. At that point, she opted for a double mastectomy and radiation therapy. But in 2021 she developed radiation-induced angiosarcoma, a cancer that forms in the…

Throughout 2018, Kami Waalkens noticed the pain in her left hip only occasionally. She’d feel a twinge when she worked out on certain machines at the gym, or when she raised a leg to climb into the car, or when she ran a virtual 5K race. Then a 25-year-old hospital social worker in Mason City, Iowa, Waalkens ignored the intermittent pain for six months—she assumed her sciatic nerve was acting up…

A baby’s first steps, their first day of school, holidays, graduations, sporting events, weddings. The list goes on and on of all the milestones parents hope to see in their children’s lives. But for Melanie Putnam, that list was much shorter 13 years ago. “I remember praying, ‘God, just please let me live long enough to see my kids finish elementary school,’” Putnam says. “I just wanted them to…

One “I love you” is all Lukas Hazen’s parents were guaranteed as he was flown by medical helicopter to University of Iowa Health Care Stead Family Children’s Hospital. Because they chose Iowa’s top children’s hospital, they’ve had 12 years of love and joy with their son, but the journey hasn’t come without its challenges. Josh and Jayme Hazen were warned their son might not survive childbirth…

Newborn deliveries at University of Iowa Health Care have increased significantly in recent years. This includes the number of premature and high-risk babies in need of specialized neonatal care. Many of these babies are admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at UI Health Care Stead Family Children’s Hospital. To accommodate the state’s growing need for maternal care and specialized…

When Raelyn Miller-Ramirez and her family moved to Iowa from Oregon, they felt a little lost as Raelyn navigated the world without her sight. Thankfully, because of a family connection to Iowa, they found hope when they transferred her care to University of Iowa Health Care Stead Family Children’s Hospital. Raelyn’s harrowing health care journey started two weeks before her sixth birthday, when…