As Owen Trampe stood at the end of his 2,650-mile journey on the Pacific Crest Trail, he reflected on the hundreds of thousands of steps it had taken to get there. And while he certainly had faced challenges along the way, no step was as difficult as a few he took five years earlier. “The hardest thing I have ever done was stand and take those first couple of steps after coming around from…

Often with a cancer diagnosis, patients are advised that treatment may be more of a marathon than a sprint. No one took this counsel to heart more than Steve Pruisner. During his three-week stay last fall on the adult stem cell transplant unit at University of Iowa Health Care’s university campus medical center, he literally walked a marathon. Four of them, actually. More than 110 miles, step by…

Julia Peterson remembers a cardiology nurse clacking away at a computer keyboard just outside the hospital room of her 8-month-old son, Wesley. Having been at Stead Family Children’s Hospital for nearly four months for Wesley’s failing heart, Julia knew the daily routine. And this nurse didn’t usually come to the pediatric intensive care unit in the mornings. As Wesley lay in bed with a special…

Winter can be a slow time for blood donations at the University of Iowa Health Care DeGowin Blood Center. Things like bad weather or sickness may prevent someone from donating blood. Unfortunately, patients don’t get a break from needing blood, something Coralville resident Ray Haas realized 50 years ago. “In August 1974 my four-year-old brother became an amputee,” says Haas. “After he received…

For many women diagnosed with breast cancer, the diagnostic period—the time between the screening mammogram and the start of treatment—is often filled with uncertainty, anxiety, and distress. One patient compared the feeling to an inner tube being popped. “First you get popped, then your head explodes, and everything floats around like in cartoons,” they write. “You don’t know what’s happening to…

When a dangerous pathogen threatens public health, UI Health Care’s Special Pathogen Unit (SPU) stands ready to respond. Designed with state-of-the-art infection control and isolation, this unit is able to transform a portion of the Surgical and Neurosciences Intensive Care Unit at our university campus into a secure biocontainment care space equipped to handle highly infectious diseases. “We’re…

Amanda Eleazer remembers when she started using drugs. It was 2014, and she was a 25-year-old mother of four living in Tennessee. Her husband was a patient at a local pain clinic, which she now realizes was a “pill mill,” a facility that illegally prescribes opioid painkillers such as oxycodone. He would offer to share his pills with her, and at first Eleazer declined. But one day, she accepted —…

During the winter, the air is drier, which causes our skin to lose moisture. Jennifer Powers, MD, FAAD, says there are a few simple tricks to counteract the painful effects of cold weather. Moisturize within three minutes after showering or bathing to seal in the moisture. Additionally, using lukewarm to cold water, rather than hot, will cause less skin irritation. Due to COVID-19, we’re all…

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.