Testimonial - Personalized Local Care

I'm Larry Swain. I live here in Brookings in the southwest part of town, and we've been here for about 10 years now that I've moved back. I've done a bachelors and a masters, actually two masters at SDSU over the years, and I did my Ph.D at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and over the last 55 year I've started 18 companies. So I'm what's called a serial entrepreneur, and I start businesses, make them successful, then sell them, and then start another one or two or three, and I've also been a professor for over 25 years at the University of Nebraska and the University of Wisconsin, and now South Dakota State University, and this is my home state. I was born and raised here in South Dakota, and I decided it's time to kind of pay back the state for raising me and educating me because I had a four year scholarship to go to college here from the state of South Dakota, and that's the only way I was able to get to college. I never would have made it before.

What Care Did You Receive At Brookings Health System?

I had had surgery at another hospital, and after the surgery I got an infection and it was a massive e coli infection. And I just started going downhill, and I was home and I couldn't eat. I lost in the past six, seven months I've lost over 50 pounds. About 20 or 25 came in that period because I was with this infection, and my wife finally made me get up and took me to the emergency room here at Brookings. I just remember how friendly people were coming in, and how they got started and just knew exactly what to do, and they took me in and took some samples and then admitted me to the hospital.

How Long Were You In The Hospital? What Was Your Recovery Like?

I was hospitalized for about five days, and they first started me on some antibiotic and the other hospital that we were in didn't somehow get on the record that I was allergic to a sulfa drug. And so they put me on the sulfa drug, and my back broke out and all kinds of things like that, so immediately they said something's wrong here, and they put me on another antibiotics. Large doses, IV doses, of that, and started that process. And that started the recovery to get that infection out of me. I was at the point that, really, I might not have lasted that much longer, because I remember I couldn't walk very well, and I was woozy, and I had absolutely no appetite. And that's where I lost, in that two week period, that other 20 pounds, that last 20 pounds, which is great. I mean, so there's good in everything, you know, somehow you gotta look for it.

I know what it's like to be at least 95 years old now, because that's how I felt. I could shuffle walk, that's about it, and I just had no energy to do anything. I couldn't get off the bed sometimes, even, I was getting so weak with it.

How Was The Staff At Brookings Health System?

The nursing staff was awesome. So friendly, so caring, always wanting to do more for you, and it made you feel at home. And other big hospitals, they can't quite do that, and that's why Brookings is a special place. Because the care that you get here is personal care, and you feel like they really care about you and what you're about and what you need. And they constantly, "Anything else we can do for you? Anything else? What do you need," and whatever it was they got it, and that was cool.

Would You Recommend Brookings Health System?

Absolutely, yeah, no doubt about that. This is the place to be, because you get service, and you get care, and you get, well the enthusiasm of the staff, the nurses. Very caring, very knowledgeable. Most of them are graduates of SDSU, which makes it even better.