Dr. Kip Herren, Deputy Superintendent of the Auburn School District and ARMC patient.

Kip Herren, Ed.D., lived a healthy and athletic life. The only time he spent in a hospital was when his wife delivered their children and he had some routine fitness testing.

That all changed in April 2006. Dr. Herren, the Deputy Superintendent of the Auburn School District, spent a lot of time at Auburn Regional Medical Center (ARMC) watching his mother recover from a stroke. A few months later, Dr. Herren, who is 57, unexpectedly faced his own crisis when his leg turned blue and he had dif culty breathing.

"My vital signs were good, so the emergency room [ER] staff could have sent me home," he says. "Instead, they performed additional testing and found that I had blood clots throughout my right leg and in five out of the six lobes in my lungs. I was an emergency waiting to happen. The blood clots could easily have broken off and traveled through my body, making my lung problems even worse or causing a heart attack or stroke."

Within hours of his arrival at the ER, Dr. Herren was in the operating room undergoing emergency surgery. His doctors placed a mesh screen in his vena cava -- a major vein in his abdomen -- to prevent blood clots from reaching his vital organs. Later, he had two additional procedures to treat the blood clots in his leg. His doctors used a thin plastic catheter to deliver clot-busting medications to the blocked vessels in his legs.

"I went from being a loved one worried about my mother to being a patient myself," he says. "I was even in the same critical care room that my mother had been in, so I knew the staff, and they knew me. The team of specialists -- an internist, a pulmonologist, a vascular surgeon, a hematologist and an oncologist -- that treated me was absolutely amazing. I was back to work in just two weeks."

Today, Dr. Herren takes blood-thinning medications and continues to visit doctors at ARMC on a regular basis for checkups and evaluations. He hasn't developed any new clots and is back to living an active life. His mother, who the staff at ARMC calls the "Miracle Grandma," is also doing well.

"It's very important to me that my family and I can get the quality services we need close to home," Dr. Herren says. "And that's what we got at ARMC. Everyone -- the doctors, nurses, technicians, security guards, people who delivered food -- were all very competent, friendly and supportive. Their commitment to customer service is remarkable."

ARMC IS HERE FOR YOUR FAMILY, TOO
For more information about services at ARMC, please visit our Web site at www.auburnregional.com.

202 North Division St., Auburn, WA 98001 (253) 833-7711, FAX: (253) 939-2376