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“There’s a really significant thing that happens when you are a patient in your most vulnerable stage and you see someone like you walk into the room,” said Aida Strom of Hennepin Healthcare.

“We see a little bit of recovery sometimes. We’d certainly never expect any recovery,” Dr. Laurence Ducker said. “It’s always just hoping that it doesn’t get worse. I think it’s a wonderful little miracle.”

Amanda Jean Noska, MD, MPH, Infectious disease specialist, Hennepin Healthcare, Why did you choose your field? I thought I wanted to be a family doctor. As I went through training, I felt that the knowledge base required to be a family physician wasn’t my strongest skill set, and I wanted to be able to follow things down the rabbit hole. I also ended up really loving every infectious disease doctor I ever worked with.

Medical experts reacted favorably. Dr. Charles Reznikoff, an addiction doctor and internist with Hennepin Healthcare, said the FDA’s move is safe and appropriate. In an interview, he cited research showing that for every 11 Narcan doses distributed to people with opioid addiction, one life will be saved.

Officials at Hennepin Healthcare said they also plan to make changes to their masking policies. Starting April 11, masking by staff will continue in patient-facing areas, like exam rooms, therapy areas and front desks, but are no longer required in other places, like elevators, cafeterias and conference rooms.

When FOX 9 first met Kamesha Davenport five years ago, she was working to get her life back together after a car slammed into her home. Since then, she has started a new business and is now on the path toward success after a life-changing call.  “We want to really make an impact with our local community,” said David Grounds, Supply Chain Manager at Hennepin Healthcare. “We’ve had some suffering in downtown Minneapolis — I think everybody’s aware what we’ve had to go through. Part of our strategic vision is to try to build up and create business relationships with the patients we serve and  the community that we’re in.”

Dr. Charles Reznikoff specializes in addiction medicine at Hennepin Healthcare. He says they’ve seen a 30% rise in overdose deaths and it’s affecting all ages and races. He hopes over the counter sales will help lower those statistics.

“There’s no reason every household shouldn’t have one of these. Everyone can have one in their backpack and people’s lives will be saved,” Reznikoff said.

Hennepin Healthcare’s Addictive Medicine Director, Gavin Bart says the xylazine can interfere with the overdose-saving drug naloxone which prompts extra concern from health officials. 

The grant announcement took place at Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis, which pioneered ER use of ultrasound technology. Rising violence in the mid-1980s resulted in more patients at HCMC with stab wounds to the heart that were difficult to detect unless patients went into cardiac arrest, said Dr. Dave Plummer, an HCMC emergency medicine specialist.

Hennepin Healthcare provided one- or two-day training seminars in the past, but found doctors and other providers still didn’t feel comfortable making diagnostic decisions with the technology back at their hospitals, said Dr. Robert Reardon, an HCMC emergency medicine physician.

Point-of-care ultrasound machines are used at the bedside of a patient for immediate assessment, and can diagnose conditions including internal bleeding, collapsed lungs, ruptured aortic aneurysms and about 60 other life-threatening problems that require immediate diagnosis and intervention, according to David Plummer, a Hennepin Healthcare doctor of emergency medicine who was among the first in the country to study the efficacy of ultrasound systems in emergency care.

“It’s about sixty things we can look at with high degrees of efficiency, and all of them require immediate diagnosis and immediate intervention to improve outcome. We didn’t expect that,” said Dr. David Plummer, an Emergency Medicine Physician with Hennepin Healthcare.

Physician assistant Natalie Ikeman with Hennepin Healthcare says there’s actually very similar nutritional value between frozen and fresh produce.

“But the longer it is out from the harvesting, that nutrient count really decreases quickly, so it really depends on when you eat that food,” she said.

“She was a dream in the chamber — bonded with all of our nurses,” said Dr. Tom Masters, the hyperbaric medicine specialist who oversaw Kenzie’s treatment. “She did really well. We were concerned about it, but it turned out to be something she could handle.”

“Certain wounds will have oxygen delivery issues, and if we’re able to increase the oxygen that they’re getting just globally, we can help make things heal appropriately,” explained Dr. Thomas Masters with Hennepin Healthcare’s Center for Hyperbaric Medicine.

“The transplant offered DuWayne the gift of raising his family, living his life, working and sharing his journey, so others have hope,” said Ellen Bernardson, who works as a nurse practitioner in the surgery department at Hennepin Healthcare and specializes in the care of kidney transplant patients.

The team learned about the origin and history of hyperbaric medicine at HCMC from Dr. Christopher Logue and staff.

A handful of bewildered friends questioned my decision to donate a kidney to someone I didn’t know.

The simple answer: Why not? A healthy person can get by with just one kidney, and the other one can be of greater use to someone whose health and general wellbeing have eroded as their kidneys failed. I’m happy to share the wealth. – Kelly Maynard, RN

“We’re expecting some long days with our crews,” Hennepin EMS Battalion Chief Mike Trullinger says.  Monday morning crews were already seeing an increased number of calls.  “We had 10 fall calls on the board at one time this morning,” Trullinger says.