Vanderbilt University Medical Center

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Patient Spotlight

Patient Spotlight

The fourth grader was in the hospital and missed his classmates. They missed him too. So all 66 of them came to visit.

By Jessica Pasley

"It was really important to us to show him he is in our hearts.”

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Patient Spotlight

Owen Canavan was badly injured six years ago. He uses experience to encourage others recovering from traumatic injuries.

By Jill Clendening

In 2017, Canavan was working out at a fitness center when a car came crashing into the building and pinned him against a wall. In the span of a week, he underwent eight surgeries.

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Patient Spotlight

Healing over the holidays: A nurse’s guide to spending the holidays at the hospital

By Courtney Graetzer

There's no place like the hospital for the holidays. And we don't mean that in a good way. But here are some ways to make it better.

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Patient Spotlight

Gracie was with her mom and grandmother on a road trip. A medical emergency brought the Angel 7 ambulance to her rescue.

By Jessica Pasley

Angel 7 is the first pediatric transport team in Tennessee to offer extracorporeal membrane oxygenation — ECMO — for its patients. It was the difference in life and death.

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Patient Spotlight

The couple was staying in the hospital with a sick child. When the staff heard it was their anniversary, they arranged a special dinner with candlelight and flowers.

By Jessica Pasley

Jim and Jill Somerville ended up with an anniversary to remember — and a commemorative plaque

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Patient Spotlight

Two miracles, four years apart

By Matt Batcheldor

Kelly Harden's life was saved by a lung transplant. Exactly four years later, she was saved again with a kidney transplant.

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Patient Spotlight

Holding hands one more time: Compassion and collaboration allow couple to spend the most precious time together

By Jill Clendening

Virginia and Tommy Stevens, both 91, have been married 69 years and this was the time they needed each other the most. Compassionate problem-solving by the Palliative Care Unit and the Trauma Intensive Care Unit teams brought the loving couple together one more time.

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Patient Spotlight

 “Old fashioned texting”: patient and her caregivers chat via signs in windows

By Jessica Pasley

The clinic building faces the hospital building, and when Katy Rose was in the hospital, she began posting signs for her clinic nurse to see. It kind of grew from there.

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Patient Spotlight

That piano music coming from the chapel? It’s a 16-year-old patient at the baby grand

By Jessica Pasley

The first chance he got to leave his hospital room, Gabe Gingerich made his way to the keyboard

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