My husband was a patient at Cooper. He had so many issues with his health that, once doctors were able to control one problem, another one would appear. He was in the ICU for ten days at the time of his passing. I was so upset that I was hardly functioning.

All the nurses at Cooper were really great, but there was one exceptionally good nurse – Brittani Goehringer. She was with my husband during the last two days of his life. I can’t explain exactly what it was she did, but found a way to make his passing easier for me. She was the kind of nurse everyone needs by their side when death is imminent.

I am sure the nurses in the ICU have special training to help them deal with grieving families and I would like to thank all the nurses who helped care for my husband. But Brittani went above and beyond her job description to comfort me. She was fantastic.

Antoinette Blais
Wenonah, New Jersey

Thomas McCabe, 53, of Woodbury Heights, NJ, loves his job working as a mail carrier for the U.S. Postal Service. He takes pride in knowing that he’s the one responsible in making sure all the mail is getting delivered directly to the people in his community each and every afternoon.

So when he began experiencing severe chest pains in December 2010, and was told he needed a cardiac catheterization procedure, he was worried he’d be out of work for a couple of weeks. With a failing economy and the risk of losing his job — that wasn’t a chance he was going to take.

“From what I was told about the recovery period for a traditional cardiac catheterization, I thought I was going to be out of work for at least a couple of weeks,” said McCabe. “My job is pretty demanding, so missing even a few days of work would probably affect me in some way.”

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Imagine feeling afraid to laugh or hesitant to join that new exercise class with all of your friends.

For women with stress incontinence, or uncontrolled urination, these everyday activities can seem like a living nightmare. Some women are so embarrassed by this very common condition that they wait years to seek proper treatment. The good news is that stress incontinence is a minor condition that can usually be easily fixed.

Stacy Sellers, 43, an office manager for a local company, felt a constant sense of nervousness around other people when she began to have uncontrollable leakage. Even the littlest amount of pressure on her bladder would create an immediate leak of urine. It would happen all the time: when she sneezed, coughed, laughed or even moved a certain way.

“I suddenly had no control over my own body,” said Sellers. “I felt so humiliated that I kept what was going on a secret from everyone, including some of my close family members.”

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I am writing to thank you and all the dedicated doctors, nurses and technicians at Cooper University Hospital at Camden for the outstanding care I received during my recent stay.

In late July, I was admitted to Cooper’s ninth floor Oncology unit, room 910. I had breast cancer and required a mastectomy. I also have osteogensis imperfecta (O.I.) type IIII, which, as you well know, has its own problems.

I had a wonderful surgeon, Dr. Karen Hendershott. She, along with Christina Hunter, RN, Nurse Educator, put together a plan for my care. Nurses and technicians were asked to volunteer to take my case. They all learned the Dos and Don’ts of O.I. patient care, so I didn’t have to worry about someone coming in my room and pulling an arm or leg and maybe causing a fracture.

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Juliana with Timmy and Audrina

My daughter, Juliana Medeirus, was in a car accident on November 13, 2010.

After taking the full brunt of a telephone pole on the driver’s side, her three year-old son, Timmy, walked away with barely a scratch thanks to his car seat. Juliana, however, was choppered to Cooper with two collapsed lungs, a broken sternum, broken ribs, a broken lumbar, four breaks in her pelvis and a broken jaw. She was immediately taken to the operating room and had her spleen taken out, a lacerated liver repaired and a leaking vein brought under control thanks to her skilled surgeons.

Within a day of not waking up, Juliana was found to have Diffused Axonal Injury (shearing of the brain) and will have a long recovery ahead of her. Just weeks later, though, we are happy to report that she is now in rehab, awake, recognizing us and ALIVE! COOPER SAVED HER LIFE!

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