It hit him out of nowhere.
After starting a Monday morning in late July by welcoming a group of new associates at orientation, Thompson Health President and CEO Michael F. Stapleton Jr. attended meetings at the hospital before taking part in a golf tournament hosted by state Sen. Pam Helming.
Afterwards, he was on his way to pick up his youngest daughter and was feeling good. “At 6:14, I had absolutely zero pain. Zero nausea. Nothing,” he said.
At 6:15, however, he suddenly felt like he’d been shot.
“That’s how quickly it hit me,” Stapleton recalled. “It took my breath away.”
Still, he picked up his daughter and made her dinner. All the while, the searing pain in his abdomen persisted. Having worked as a nurse for many years, his mind was running through the possibilities, including food poisoning and a kidney stone. Then he spiked a fever and knew he should go to an emergency department immediately. There was no question as to which one.
Greeted at Thompson by a nurse just off orientation who was “phenomenal,” Stapleton had samples taken for the lab, yielding results that raised concern and heightened his anxiety.
That very morning, Stapleton had shown a powerful video about empathy – produced by The Cleveland Clinic – to the group of new Thompson associates. He ensures every associate watches it on their first day. At its core is the message that while the hospital setting is routine for the staff, it can be vastly different for patients, and the way staff members treat them has a profound impact. It all hit home when he found himself in the ED, in pain and waiting to learn what would happen next.
“You just feel so vulnerable. You’re depending on everybody. You don’t know what’s going on. You don’t know how it’s going to get fixed,” he said.
Next came a CT scan, and an answer: A radiologist saw a perforated small intestine. Typically, this is something only seen as a result of gunshot wounds or stabbings, but in extremely rare cases, it happens due to an unknown cause.
Dr. Bradley J. Hensley scheduled an emergency surgery, and Stapleton was admitted to an inpatient room. The nurse who greeted him happened to be a recent Associate of the Year, and he knew many of the other associates who were providing his care, too.
“Having familiar faces and people I trust and respect made a horrendous situation much better,” he said.
Getting wheeled into the OR was scary, however. Stapleton has undergone surgeries in the past but having one due to an acute emergency was a whole different ball game. He was thinking about his mother – who lives 2,000 miles away – and his fiancée and kids, including the son whose bachelor party he’d be missing that weekend.
Again, though, he knew he was in good hands with Hensley, colleague Dr. Andrew Powers, and the rest of the O.R. team.
“It just made all the difference in the world,” he said. “I had full confidence in everybody.”
After surgery, Stapleton remained hospitalized for four more days.
Some of it – including the placement of a tube that goes through the nose to the stomach – wasn’t pleasant. But late at night he’d slowly walk the halls of floor 3 East to gain strength, and it afforded him the opportunity to witness how the nurses dealt with challenging patients, how they exuded a sense of calm and empathy, and how well they worked together with other members of the team. He also overheard other patients and family members comment on the friendliness, the care, and the great food. Although he and other members of the executive team routinely round on the floors to talk with associates, he resolved then and there to spend more time talking with patients in the future.
In addition, as someone who is used to being on the go, Stapleton had time to truly ponder how quickly life can change, and how timing is everything. Just two weeks prior, he and his fiancée summited a 14,000-foot mountain in the Rockies. They were on a dirt trail, 25 miles from any kind of help. He knew his experience could have been vastly different had the tear in the small intestine occurred then.
Most of all, the health scare left Stapleton with a profound sense of gratitude for his colleagues. In a heartfelt email to all associates upon his return, he said, “I have always been proud of all of you, but this experience has intensified my pride.”
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