Long-time SAH volunteer Richard Webb was on duty in Ambulatory Care when he suddenly collapsed. The team sprang into action around him, providing outstanding care.
For the last 10 years, Richard Webb has been volunteering at Sault Area Hospital. He's held a variety of jobs over the years - but his favourite place to volunteer is in Ambulatory Care.
"It's so fulfilling. It gives me purpose. I've made more friends volunteering here in the 10 years I've been here." -Richard Webb, SAH Volunteer
Richard volunteers twice a week, Mondays and Wednesdays. "I get close contact with patients. Some you can joke around with - lighten the mood. They appreciate the fact that there's someone they can talk to." It was one of these Monday mornings, July 22, when Richard suddenly found himself in a role reversal; instead of helping others, he was in need of help himself.
"I came in to work, but I wasn't feeling the best. Within 15 minutes I had collapsed. One of the nurses, Shannon, put me on a bed and took my vitals and immediately called an emergency alert."
"He was in the right place at the right time," Ambulatory Care Nurse Shannon Morrison shared. "It could have gone differently if he hadn't been at the hospital when it happened."
Shannon stayed with Richard as he was rushed to the Emergency Department. Shannon said the team there took "amazing" care of him. "The two nurses were so kind to him." When it became clear the issue was serious, they called Richard's wife. "Richard has become a member of our team. I couldn't stay with him, and I couldn't imagine him not having his wife with him," Shannon shared.
Richard's care team determined it was an issue with his heart, and he was brought to the Intensive Care Unit. "I had extreme bradycardia - the upper chamber of my heart stopped functioning." The solution was a pacemaker. "We have a locum that comes to SAH to do pacemakers, but the locum had left," Richard relayed. "I would've had to wait a month. And I didn't have a month."
The team at Sault Area Hospital arranged an air ambulance for Richard, and he was flown to St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto for surgery. "I flew down Wednesday, the pacemaker was put in Friday, and by Saturday I was home."
With his health issue resolved, 81-year-old Richard "felt 70 again". Issues he had attributed to age, like fatigue, were lessened thanks to the new pacemaker. He returned to SAH to volunteer the following Monday, and received the warmest welcome back - the whole team was there.
"Volunteers offer such an amazing service, and we're so luck to have them," Shannon said. "When they're not here, we really miss them. You get attached to them too, when you see them every week. He's one of our people."
Gifts to Sault Area Hospital Foundation will continue to help Richard get care, close to home. From the best that transported Richard to the ER, to the tools that monitored his condition, to the machines that found the issue with his heart: all of this equipment is at SAH thanks to donor's support.
Now that Richard has a pacemaker, he will need regular check-ups, "every six months, until the battery runs out." Luckily, Sault Area Hospital has a pacemaker clinic where Richard (and 1,400 other patients in our area) can get this care. Local support is ensuring the pacemaker clinic has the tools and technology to keep providing care to Richard, here in Sault Ste. Marie.
"I'm going to keep volunteering as long as I can," Richard shared. "It fills time in a way that's much more productive and rewarding than anything else you can do. I want to make everyday worthwhile."
Local support helps patients like Richard, stay close to home
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