In the News

Dr. Myriam Roby, Health Clinical Outcome Director for Hennepin Healthcare, joins Freddie Bell. She says research is ongoing for cures for long COVID. She encourages communities of color to be active participants in important and health discoveries.

“Most of them do look like cold symptoms — although there seems to be more associated with fever and chills and things of that nature than you would see with a cold,” said Joshua Gramling, RN.

Margaret Udo and her family gathered Wednesday morning in the second-floor lobby at Hennepin County Medical Center for her portrait to be unveiled.

Soon to be revealed at the downtown Minneapolis hospital was a painting in the style of Shuri, King T’Challa’s sister in Marvel’s “Black Panther” superhero comic books and movie, to honor Udo’s journey and survival of breast cancer.

The hospital believes the program is the first food-specific, one-on-one navigator model in Minnesota. But it’s part of an expanding health effort to go beyond offering simple health literature, said Dr. Diana Cutts, a pediatrician at Hennepin Healthcare and a nationally recognized expert in the health impacts of food insecurity. (Dr. Cutts is not involved in the M Health Fairview effort.)

“We have learned, painfully, that giving families a printout sheet or pamphlet isn’t enough. Way too many don’t make the connections that we’d hoped they might,” Dr. Cutts said.

Perinatal mood disorders — such as postpartum depression and anxiety — are the most common complications during and after pregnancy.

Dr. Helen Kim is a reproductive psychiatrist and director of the Hennepin Healthcare Mother-Baby Program and Redleaf Center for Family Healing.

“Let’s pause and bless this time of waiting and bless the gift of life Max’s body may give to others,” HCMC chaplain Sarah Lindberg said to the crowd gathered. “Max, you are leaving this earth much too quickly. … Help us to let go of your life on earth, to sense the heroic presence of your spirit and allow your body to be a gift of health to another.”

Erik Wilson, Max’s uncle, told the group that the family is grateful for their support. “He was a wonderful, wonderful person” who will be greatly missed, Wilson said.

14-year-old Maxwell Wilson is making his final journey to the operating room to fulfill his last wish of saving others through organ donation.

Friends and family dressed in red commemorated Max’s gift of life, along with a flag raising ceremony outside the Hennepin County Medical Center.

Lakeville is grieving after a 14-year-old boy died in the hospital after being hit by a car while riding a scooter earlier in the week.

In Max’s honor, a crowd gathered outside of Hennepin Healthcare for a flag-raising, and a hero’s walk, before his organs were donated.

“Max, you are leaving this earth much too quickly. The machines are doing the work and we know it’s no longer you. Help us to let go of your life on earth to sense the heroic presence of your spirit and allow your body to be a gift of help to another, ” said Sarah Lindberg, chaplain at Hennepin Healthcare.

While parents tried to console their children, Wilson’s uncle thanked all for their care and support.

“We are grateful for it and everybody who showed up wearing the beautiful red he was a wonderful, wonderful person and he will be greatly missed thank you everybody for coming today,” said Erik Wilson.

“Today he is going to become a superhero, which was his childhood dream,” said Chaplain Sarah Lindberg.

A couple of points stand out to Dr. David Hilden, Chair of the Department of Medicine for Hennepin Healthcare.

“In our history we’ve only handled a couple of these,” said Dr. Jon Cole, an emergency physician with Hennepin Healthcare and medical director of the Minnesota Regional Poison Center. “It’s pretty unusual in this part of the country, fortunately. The venom is extremely potent… but fortunately it is not fatal.”

Saturday saw the return of the teddy bear clinic, a chance for kids to see and experience the healthcare system in a whole new way, and remove some of those fears they may have.

“This allows kids to be the parent and to have some autonomy, make some choices for their bear and see things in a really friendly way,” said Dr. Ashley Strobel, a pediatric emergency physician. “We once had like an 11-year-old girl come through maybe the first year of the Teddy Bear Clinic, she came back as a repeat customer… and she had been through our resuscitation room in the meantime as a patient and she said it made that experience less scary for her.”

Marielle Demarais, chief of psychology at Hennepin Healthcare, said peer specialists still aren’t widely available in the state, so billing for them can be an issue because many insurers don’t cover peers, and Medicaid is only applicable in specific situations.

Karen Strauman, DNP, Chief Nursing Officer of Hennepin Healthcare (Minneapolis): In an era where the nursing workforce is under significant strain, we cannot stress enough what an integral part they are to the healthcare team. Our nurses are highly skilled, compassionate professionals who demonstrate an unyielding determination to excellence — even when facing challenging circumstances. Whether providing direct or virtual patient care, supervising or managing, they perform their jobs with integrity and professionalism, making a difference not only in the lives of their patients, but also their team members who have the privilege of working alongside them.

During National Nurses Week and the other 51 weeks of the year, we appreciate our nursing colleagues and thank them for improving the health and lives of our patients.

The rates of breast cancer have risen over the past 40 years, but for some groups of women, that rate is much higher than others. Dr. Myriam Roby, the director of equity clinical outcomes from Hennepin Healthcare, talks about the importance of breast cancer screening.

“Working here reminds me of my training up north in rural health – which sounds funny on the surface. We think of Hennepin Healthcare as this big institution that sees lots of patients, and we do, but in comparison to other health systems around the city, we’re small. I see patients on the light rail and chat with them. They’re my neighbors. I might see them at a local restaurant. We have a valuable connection to the community that you won’t get elsewhere. You get that small-town feeling if you’ve been here for a while, especially if you live in the city like I do.”

Dr. Tyler Winkelman, Hennepin Healthcare’s division director of general internal medicine, helped set up the jail’s opioid use disorder treatment program in 2019 with grant dollars. He said about 6,000 people received treatment there last year.