There is a big difference between trying to save the lives of Navy sailors and Marines wounded in battle and trying to solve the health issues of patients at a civilian hospital in Texas.
But Dr. Carlos Rodriguez, who retired from the Navy in 2018 after 24 years of service to become Director of Emergency General Surgery at JPS Health Network, said he has found both career paths can be equally rewarding.
When Fort Worth resident Jennifer Beyer learned she had breast cancer, she didn’t have any doubt that she was going to beat the disease.
“I didn’t know what God’s plan was for me,” Beyer, 45, said about her reaction to the startling diagnosis. “But I knew that it wasn’t to lay down in a bed and die. I still have too much that I want and need to do. I’m a single mom of two kids.”
Is it going to be a rough flu season or a mild one? In many ways, that’s up to you.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the best way to minimize the spread of the flu is for as many people as possible to get a vaccination against the disease every year. When people vaccinated against the flu are exposed to the virus, it’s far less likely that they’ll contract it or spread it, so influenza can be stopped in its tracks.
JPS Health Network police officer Jesse Willyerd has law enforcement in his blood.
He’s the son of a retired Tarrant County Sheriff’s Department deputy, so he’s wanted to be a cop as long as he can remember. It’s not a surprise that, after working at JPS for a while, he itched to go work for a municipal police department to get a taste of what it was like working in a more traditional law enforcement environment.
It’s never too early to think about the holiday season – especially when it comes to blood donations.
JPS Health Network on Monday, October 14 will hold a blood drive with an eye on the rapidly-approaching winter holidays.
“This is a time of year when we’re trying to plan ahead,” said Alison Kelly, Transfusion Safety Program Coordinator at JPS. “During the holidays, people will be traveling, so giving blood isn’t going to be on their mind. Donors might not be available at a time when demand is at its peak. So, we have to be prepared for things like that.”
Elizabeth Pegueros received the diagnosis no one wants to hear.
The 32-year-old mother of an eight-year-old daughter didn’t think much of her persistent cough. She always took good care of herself by getting plenty of exercise, ate right and didn’t smoke. She was confident it was just allergies or maybe a lingering infection to blame. Besides, she didn’t have health insurance. So, she thought, why waste money going to the doctor just to be told there wasn’t really anything that could done?
When Joyce Pierce came to JPS Health Network, a serious hernia was taking away her life bit by bit.
A bowling ball-sized protrusion of her intestines through her abdominal wall made it difficult, if not impossible, to perform even the everyday tasks many of us take for granted.
“I could barely roll over in bed, much less get any exercise,” Pierce said. “I couldn’t even hold my grandbaby. It was really difficult to do much of anything at all.”