Testimonial - Fast, Calm and Compassionate Emergency and Rehabilitative Care

My name is Doug Neises, I'm from Elkton South Dakota, and I work at Babybel the new cheese place here in Brookings.

What Emergency Care Did Brookings Health System Provide?

I came to the ER with a stroke and I didn't know that I was having a stroke. I was at work and then I was just visiting with another employee, or actually my boss, and in between sentences my voice changed, started rambling, and I thought that's really weird I wonder why I'm doing that. And he works at the ambulance in Elkton, and he's like "Dude you're having a stroke." He said, "Do you feel good?" and I was trying to tell him I feel great, I was standing and like marching. Showing him that I didn't lose any of my strength and stuff. But I couldn't stop rambling for like five minutes or more. I just, so then that's why we came to the ER right away.

How Was Your Emergency Care at Brookings Health System?

When I came in, then I had great service and they were very fast and they had to do a lot of testing because I was running a 104.5 temp which is kinda odd. So I think they were trying to figure that out, why I was running such a high temp because that's not normal for a stroke. They did a CAT scan and stuff and then they were like kind of figured what's going on.

How Was Your Occupational and Speech Therapy at Brookings Health System?

I did my rehab and they did a great job. When I had my surgery in Sioux Falls, they said "He's probably not gonna walk or talk again," that was four months ago. At that time I couldn't walk or talk and stuff, and Amy's helped me out a bunch and my first word was yup. It took maybe a month or so and I was putting sentences together and stuff started to happen for me. And so they had on the table, and this was with Amy, so I was already back and kind of back into normal life, and Amy had on a table she had a glass, and a rose, and a toothbrush, and matches, there was like five things. And they asked me, my wife had it on video so I watched it and they asked me, "Can you point to the rose?" I had no clue. I kept looking in the cup. I couldn't answer any of her questions of what it was. And then she did really simple things like "Do you know where the door is?" And I'd look around the room and couldn't figure out. "Where's the wall?" No clue. "Where's your chair?" No clue. And so it really made me realize that I was not thinking straight.

The way I understand I have a years time to get back what I'm gonna get back is in a year's time, so that's my deadline. So I'm pushing really hard, I really want to start to spell good again and read good again. So, those are the things that I'm doing a lot of now, because I don't want to lose it if I don't have to. So I'm still working on that kind of stuff a lot. And I'm remembering pretty good, things. I think last time I can remember like if you give me a list of like maybe 10 things to do, I can remember it without writing it down and a lot of people can't remember that anyways so they say I'm doing good.

How Were You Treated by the Staff at Brookings Health System?

The people are all super nice. I have become really good friends with a lot of them. They mean a lot to me now. They're not just people anymore. They're friends.

Would You Recommend Brookings Health System?

I recommend Brookings Health System because the care was great and the doctor said I was probably one of his most unique situations, when I came here, and he had to do a lot of thinking fast and he did, and it probably was part of the big reasons why I made it. Because he thought fast. And so I think the care was great here and I think the ER thought fast and did what they had to do and stayed calm, because of course we weren't. And they stayed calm and handled the situation and did a great job.