Laraine's Story
When pain persists, take me to West Valley ER
Laraine, of Caldwell, still vividly recalls the early morning hour when she rolled over in bed and felt an awful pain persist right below her stomach.
“It was 2 a.m. and I just knew my intestines were in a knot. It felt excruciating,” Laraine said.
After praying, and tossing and turning, her body began shaking uncontrollably due to the pain’s intensity. Eventually, she lost consciousness.
“My husband, Phil, thought I was sleeping; and when I came to, I heard him getting ready to take our kids to school,” Laraine said. “I called out that I needed to go to the hospital.”
Phil drove Laraine to West Valley Medical Center, a close-to-home, nationally accredited hospital.
“My mother-in-law used to work at West Valley and she always said she’d never hesitate to go to that hospital – so if there’s a problem, we don’t hesitate to go there either,” Laraine said.
Within the West Valley Emergency Room, Lariane’s medical team ordered a series of imaging tests, determining the source of her health crisis.
“Dr. Ryan Hardy, a general surgeon, came in and offered me congratulations because I had something so extremely rare – I had a hole in my omentum. Only 2 percent of the population ever experiences that,” Laraine said.
The omentum is a curtain of connective tissue that hangs from the stomach and covers the intestines. The hole in Laraine’s omentum gave way for approximately a foot and a half of Laraine’s small intestines to slip through and become entangled.
“Between 14 and 18 inches of my intestines had made its way through that hole; and I could tell the doctors right where that all happened because I could feel it so clearly,” Laraine said.
Although Laraine’s condition proved rare and serious, West Valley’s board-certified physicians and expert medical team knew exactly what to do.
“They went right to it,” Laraine said. “The doctors were friendly and informative and made me feel at ease. I knew I was in great care as I went into surgery.”
Through laparoscopic methods, Dr. Hardy untangled and returned Laraine’s small intestines to their proper position. He also surgically altered and modified the omentum to ensure that the critical situation couldn’t happen again.
Laraine remained at West Valley for a few days of recovery, as her intestines recuperated from the surgery and got moving again.
“Through it all, the nurses were so sweet and compassionate. I knew one of my post-op nurses and I knew of the physicians too. It was nice to see familiar faces and feel such friendliness from everyone in the hospital,” Laraine said.
Once ready to be released from the hospital, one of the kind nurses walked Laraine to the car and offered parting words of guidance.
“She said, ‘If I were your sister, I’d tell you to do this…’ The advice and the way she offered it helped me feel like family. That sums up my hospital experience really. The place and the people felt homey and warm and like family,” Laraine said.
Laraine is thankful she said ‘Take me to West Valley’. We promise to care for our patients like family – just as our colleagues did for her.
