University of Iowa Health Care is launching several virtual and in-person fall prevention programs aimed at reducing unintentional injuries among older adults. As part of its commitment to injury prevention, the health system’s trauma center—part of the acute care surgery division in the Department of Surgery and verified as a Level 1 Trauma Center by the American College of Surgeons —is…
Patient Care
Patient Care
Passing out and briefly losing consciousness—for a few seconds to a few minutes—can be scary, but it's not necessarily a cause for alarm. Syncope, the medical term for passing out, is usually related to a drop in blood flow to the brain. Many conditions can cause this, and most aren't serious. Vasovagal syncope is the most common type of syncope and is usually not life-threatening. It occurs when…
Entering the world of collegiate sports can be a big leap for any athlete. But for Iowa State University volleyball player Kiersten Schmitt, those challenges were magnified by a mysterious and excruciating condition in her calves that prevented her from playing at full force during her freshman season. The pain had dogged the 18-year-old through high school, but college-level training brought the…
Call it a parent’s intuition. Call it knowing that expert health care happens at University of Iowa Health Care Stead Family Children’s Hospital. Whatever you call it, Atlas Coleman’s family is forever grateful that a second opinion meant an early diagnosis for their baby’s rare, aggressive cancer. Stacy and Neal Coleman took their son to the emergency room after Atlas suddenly became…
Arnold Sherman is one lucky dog. In 2002, he left a park near a small town in southeast Iowa with his poodle-terrier mix named Sandy and noticed the pup was panting heavily. He stopped at a grocery to buy his furry companion some water, and then he collapsed at the checkout counter. His heart was beating too fast to circulate blood and he lost consciousness. Luckily, the cashier was an off-duty…
For Keegan Wells, nursing is a family affair. “Both my mom and my grandma were nurses,” says Wells, RN, BSN, a telemetry nurse at University of Iowa Health Care’s downtown campus. “It was my grandma who always said she thought I’d be a good nurse.” While his grandmother died several years ago and his mother has retired, both had several nursing jobs in the Iowa City area during their careers,…
Candida auris, or C. auris, is a name you might not yet be familiar with but is an increasingly common topic in the news. So, what is it? To learn more, we talked to infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist Karen Brust, MD. C. auris, or Candida auris, is a type of yeast that can cause severe illness. It can easily spread among patients in health care facilities, but lately we've seen that…
If your shoulder hurts so much that you struggle to perform daily activities or even sleep at night, shoulder replacement might be your best option for relief. If you’re considering shoulder replacement, it’s important to consult a highly experienced surgeon, advises University of Iowa Health Care orthopedic surgeon Brendan Patterson, MD, MPH. “Patients should visit a surgeon with specialized…
A young boy’s family believes fate combined with expert health care saved his life, overcoming a rare cancer. Carter Schmidt had been healthy until he was 9 months old, when his mother, Tiffany, and his day care provider noticed he was pale, lethargic, and not eating. A blood draw taken at his local doctor’s office showed a high white blood cell count and low red blood cells. It also indicated a…
Atrial fibrillation (Afib) is an irregular heart rhythm (arrhythmia) that starts in the upper chambers of the heart. As many as 6 million Americans have Afib, which develops as an abnormal, rapid heartbeat when the upper chambers beat rapidly and out of sync with the lower chambers. This makes it harder for the heart to pump blood efficiently throughout the body. Patients with Afib often describe…