Worth the drive — Some patients travel great distances for Boone Hospital’s care

By Jacob Luecke

This story is featured in the Winter 2013 edition of myBoone Health magazine. Click here for a free subscription.

When it’s time for Liz Parry’s regular checkup, she and husband Kirk simply drive to Boone Hospital Center.

They cross the Buffalo River, motor past Branson, take a right at Springfield, turn left at Lebanon and they’re here. No problem.

The Parrys live in Little Rock, Ark.

They’ve been making this journey to Boone Hospital — 400 miles one way — for about 15 years now.

So, what do their friends think of their regular trips to Missouri?

“Many of them think we’re nuts,” Kirk said.

But the Parrys wouldn’t have it any other way.

The hospital has helped bring Liz back from serious illness on two occasions — offering care and expert diagnoses they simply couldn’t find closer to home.

“They gave me my life back,” Liz said.

That’s easily worth the drive.

Missouri bound

It was the early 1990s and Liz was standing at the counter of a dry cleaner in Little Rock.

As she waited for her clothes, a van came crashing through the front of the store. It slammed into Liz, crushing her abdomen and pelvis.

She was taken to her local hospital, where doctors repaired her broken bones.

But long after her bones healed, the accident left her with a more mysterious and life-altering problem — she could no longer digest food.

While she could still physically eat, food made her sick. She stopped going to restaurants. She even avoided social functions, knowing they often revolve around food.

“She was a prisoner in her own home,” Kirk said.

This went on for five years. She was slowly dying from malnutrition.

“I got to be about this big around,” Liz said, holding her hands about a foot apart.

A relative in Missouri mentioned Liz’s perplexing situation to her physician, Lyndell Scoles, MD, and internal medicine specialist at Boone Hospital.

Dr. Scoles had an idea of what could be wrong and said he’d be glad to see Liz if she could make the drive to Columbia.

At that point, Liz would go anywhere for help.

“Can he see me tomorrow?” Liz said.

A 400-mile drive later, Dr. Scoles did a simple blood test that determined the problem — Liz’s pancreas had been crushed by the impact from the van. It was no longer secreting the enzymes needed to digest food.

Fortunately, there was an easy fix. Liz just needed to take an enzyme capsule before every meal.

“I said, ‘If this stuff works, can I eat a salad?’” Liz remembers. “He said, ‘If this stuff works, you can eat anything you want to.’”

And it worked. One visit to Boone Hospital had solved years of agony. The Parrys were sold.

From then on, they made regular trips back to Boone Hospital for Liz’s follow up visits.

When Liz regained her health, the trips decreased to just once a year for checkups and Liz’s mammogram.

While they came for the medical expertise at Boone Hospital, their repeat visits exposed them to something just as important — the hospital’s culture of caring.

They were amazed by the courteous and knowledgeable staff members at every level of the organization. The experience was especially eye opening for Kirk, a psychologist who has served in a number of health facilities.

“I’ve been in medical settings for 40 years and I’ve never seen anything like Boone,” he said. “Sometimes, we’re driving home and saying, ‘That place is so different than any other hospital. The culture is so pervasive, from housekeeper to CEO.’”

One example they talk about happened when Liz was preparing to undergo a radiology test. A tech noticed Liz was wearing a necklace. She would have to remove it for the exam.

Liz explained that it was a special necklace that held her mother’s wedding ring. To Liz, having the ring beside her was like feeling her mother’s presence telling her that everything would be OK.

The tech leaned down and said, “I’m here to tell you every thing is going to be alright,” giving her a warm hug.

Even today, Liz recalls that moment like it happened five minutes ago.

“I just marvel at that kind of thing. I needed to hear that. It was really special,” Liz said. “That’s the kind of experience we’ve had time after time.”

National reputation

While Boone Hospital’s namesake is Boone County, today the hospital serves a much broader geographical area.

In 2011, Boone Hospital welcomed patients from every corner of the United States. Patient hometowns are marked with blue dots.

Only about half of the hospital’s 17,000 admissions each year are Boone County residents.

Many of the rest come from the hospital’s broad service area, encompassing 25 counties reaching from Kirksville to the Lake of the Ozarks.

Still, a subset of patients, like the Parrys, come from even farther.

In some cases, patients travel to Boone Hospital see a specific doctor who specializes in a rare condition.

Other times, people may move away from mid-Missouri but still choose to come back to Boone Hospital for medical care.

Some patients may seek out Boone Hospital and travel here due to its reputation and status in national rankings for quality care, consumer preference and patient satisfaction.

Or an out-of-towner may just happen to be in mid-Missouri when a medical need arises.

Such was the case with Martha and James Wininger, of Attica, Ind.

“Recently, while visiting relatives in Fulton, my wife required medical services,” James said. He said the physician and nurse who saw them, “Received us and provided excellent care for her needs. Please extend our many thanks to them – they are assets for your institution.”

Boone or bust

Today when the Parrys travel to Columbia, they bring their RV.

The RV offers some of the comforts of home. It also has plenty of room for their boxer, Moose, to come along.

“Going to the hospital was not exactly what we got the RV for,” Liz said. “But it saved our life the last two years when we’ve been here for long stretches.”

Liz got pneumonia in December of 2010. Despite visits to local health care providers, she continued to go downhill.

“I just kept getting weaker and weaker,” she said.

Before long, they were back at Boone Hospital. A series of tests revealed Liz was suffering from an autoimmune disease with extensive blood clots in her legs and lungs. Through regular visits every six weeks, the Parrys and Dr. Scoles are finally turning the tide against the disease.

With all he has done, Liz considers Dr. Scoles to be, “absolutely the most wonderful doctor that ever was.”

Dr. Lyndell Scoles

Dr. Scoles said experiences like this are what make his medical service so rewarding.

“I became a physician to love, to pray, to cry, to listen, to extend my family and to experience one of the greatest joys in life — to watch the healing touch of God, to walk close to life and death and, with this walk, draw ever closer to God,” he said.

While the Parrys appreciate mid-Missouri, they hope Liz is soon healthy enough to point their RV in a different direction. Kirk would like to visit California and Liz wants to see Mount Rushmore.

“This was not how I planned the last couple years of my life and it’s not what I want to keep doing,” Liz said. “But if I had to do it, I’m glad I got to do it here.”

If the need arises, it’s always nice to know Boone Hospital is only 400 miles away.