In late January of '24, I woke up with severe chest pains, but ignored them and came in to work anyway. As the morning went on, things kept getting worse, so I went down to see Tina in our medical office. Tina checked my vitals and listened to all my symptoms, and let me know I was definitely having something cardiac going on and that I needed to get to the ER right away. She worked through my stubbornness, not wanting to cause a scene with an ambulance ride, and got a fellow supervisor to drive me into Berger for evaluation.

Thankfully, it wasn't a heart attack, but most of the testing ran that day and night wasn't very clear. When I returned to work, Tina looked over my test results with me to help me understand them, as well as giving me some questions to ask when I had my follow-up with the cardiologist. When the cardiologist sent me in for a heart cath, those results were also confusing to me and Tina, once again, along with Dr. Cale, helped explain them, and comments that had been made to me the day of the procedure. They once again gave me some great questions to ask in my follow up.

In the end, it was determined that it was an angina caused by an artery that was spasming shut that was causing my heart attack-like symptoms, which, if I had kept ignoring it, could have led to the real thing. Tina's help, care, and insistence on my going in that day and the days since could very well have saved my life. She has become a trusted friend and resource, and I make sure anyone in my department knows that she is there for all the employees in her care here at the plant.