Testimonial - Professional and Compassionate Emergency and Inpatient Care

Hi, I'm Jerry Siegel and I reside just three miles west of Brookings. Since I've been retired since 1994, I have a lot of free time and I spend that learning about good health, practicing good health, raising a garden, and doing all kinds of work with my family, and traveling around the United States and around the world.

What Care Did You Receive At Brookings Health System?

I came to use the wonderful facilities at the Brookings Hospital, because I had a minor bladder infection because of my use of catheters to relieve myself, and that minor infection suddenly turned deadly. When my wife realized that, she and my son brought me into the hospital emergency room where I was put in the hospital for four days.

The interesting thing is that on the day that they brought me in, I don't remember anything from when I left our house until I was safely in the hospital bed. My wife says that I answered questions in the emergency room, but I had no recollection at all of that later. I woke up and I was answering questions in the middle of answering questions to the nursing staff.

What Did You Appreciate Most About The Brookings Health System Staff?

I had the opportunity to work with just about everyone at the hospital, that was involved with the South Circle where I was, and that included the two ladies that came in and cleaned my room and sanitized my room in about two minutes, to the people down in the kitchen and the wonderful meals that they served in there. Their response to my needs, and the supervising nurses, the case manager, and also the chaplain, and the student nurses, they were all just incredible. They not only saw me as a unique, special person and treated me that way, but they were also very highly trained and very professional.

How Did Brookings Health System Help Accommodate Your Family?

One of the really neat things that I experienced up at the hospital, was I really needed my wife to be with me and she really wanted to be with me. It happened that there was a second bed that wasn't being used at that time, and even if there hadn't been the second bed, she was basically welcome to come and stay with me 24/7. So she did, except for a few hours, that entire four days.

What Did You Appreciate Most About Your Experience At Brookings Health System?

I think that it was really interesting because not only did I have the major physical problem going on in my body, but because of that, it's like at some point my mind almost separated from my body and I had a hard time trying to reconnect. Just because of the way that I was treated and the patience, I was able to reconnect everything, and then at that point, I just went on fast-forward in terms of my recovery, and I left the hospital just feeling totally confident and excited about the future.

Would You Recommend Brookings Health System?

I would very highly recommend the citizens of Brookings and the surrounding area to make use of this wonderful little hospital. I had a conversation with Dr. Deb Johnston about that and she just heartily agreed with me, that a lot of people just don't realize all the types of special care that they can receive here, and there's really not much need to go elsewhere for that care, and it's done very professionally by people that are well-trained here.