ICMH Charitable Foundation
Thankful for the Inverness hospital
Ms. Vikki’s story
Dear Friends,
Many people from the Inverness area and beyond are fortunate to know a wonderful lady, Vikki MacEachern. Affectionally known as “Ms. Vikki”, she is a local teacher who has faced some health challenges recently and she is so grateful for the care she received at Inverness Consolidated Memorial Hospital (ICMH) that she wants to share her story with you.
“I just want to say Thank You to the staff and everyone who works there at ICMH. Things can happen so quickly, so unexpectedly, I am so appreciative of having this hospital so close to home. My story started three years ago. I hadn’t been feeling well for a while, and eventually took a few days off work thinking I had the stomach flu. When it didn’t resolve after a few more days, my husband Glenn said, ‘we have to get you up to the hospital to get you better.’ We went up to the emergency department at the hospital. The doctor, who was not my family doctor, immediately just took control, knew exactly what to do, what questions to ask. The nurses were so caring. They gave me warm blankets and got my pain under control almost immediately.
I quickly had a CT scan and shortly thereafter, was told there was a tumor. I honestly don’t know if I had much of a response. I had to go for a second CT scan to see if there were more tumors elsewhere. When the techs from radiology came back to get me, they were just amazing, so kind to me and so good with Glenn and our whole family.”
Ms. Vikki went to Halifax that night for surgery and eventually returned to Inverness. As she recovered from surgery and prepared to undergo radiation therapy, she did experience complications and was admitted to ICMH.
“As soon as we were admitted to the hospital, right away someone put a bed beside mine for Glenn to rest and when you are in that situation, it is really comforting to know he could be close by. We needed that extra personal touch. Nurses that had been on when I was diagnosed would also come up on their breaks to see me, which I so appreciated. The Palliative Care team were tremendous. The doctors were all so accommodating and really cared about how my life had changed. Dietary staff asked me ‘what is your favorite food’ or ‘can I get you extra cinnamon rolls’. The housekeeping staff would talk to you when they came into the room. The people at reception, the lab techs, physio department, absolutely every person we met at the hospital welcomed us so warmly.
I just feel the Inverness hospital is a reflection of our community. When we came back home, it felt like a hug, like everyone wanted us to feel safe and at home…we didn’t have to cook a meal for months. Then you to go the hospital and it is the exact same spirit, exact same atmosphere. It was like every single person in the hospital reaches out and wants to help make your day a little brighter.
I cannot say enough about those on-call doctors and thank goodness our emergency is open day and night. The on-call doctors were always ready to be in touch with Halifax and have all the mechanisms in place to deal with things immediately.
We have been very blessed and the big part of it is our hospital because when we go there, we feel welcomed, they know us, and they don’t forget a thing. Everyone just gives that extra personal touch. I’ve always felt confident to be back home in Inverness, where we wanted to be and knew we would get the best of care at our hospital.”
Thankfully, Ms. Vikki is feeling better now and is sharing her gratitude for the community and the staff and physicians at ICMH. She hopes her story will encourage people to support ICMH.
This year the foundation purchased and installed a state-of-the art digital imaging (xray) machine, an accessible washroom for our inpatients, a television for oncology department and provided funding for gas cards for our oncology patients.
