Giving to Regions Hospital Foundation

Thank you for considering a gift to Regions Hospital Foundation. However you choose to give, we are grateful for your support in helping fulfill our mission and commitment to the communities of St. Paul, the East Metro and beyond.

There are many ways you can help. Donations, gifts of time and talent, even words of encouragement all make a significant and positive impact in helping us fulfill our mission.

The positive work of Regions Hospital reaches deep into our communities, throughout Minnesota and around the country. These are just a few of the countless stories that continue to be written every day.

“I’ve struggled my whole life knowing that I had value and was worthy, but I got that message when I was at Regions,” said Pat Werner. “It’s a wonderful facility.”

In December 2020, Pat was living in Bozeman, Montana, and struggling psychologically due to personal issues and the isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Fearing for her safety, Pat’s children researched her best care options and chose Regions. Her son put her on a plane to Minnesota and her daughter picked her up and drove her straight to the hospital.

Pat stayed at Regions for six days, first in the Regions Emergency Center, then in the hospital’s inpatient mental health unit. “[Psychiatrists from Regions] tried to figure out the best help as soon as possible. They knew I’d been through the ringer. I had complete trust in them.”

Pat learned a lot in her time at Regions, including activities she could use once she left the hospital. She particularly liked Qi Gong, an ancient practice that combines meditation, controlled breathing and gentle movement.

After her stay, Pat went home and immediately began participating in DayBridge, a Regions outpatient program that offers intensive therapy. For Pat, her program activities included art therapy, music therapy and yoga. At the same time, Regions staff began helping her coordinate ongoing care. “They knew other community programs very well and tried to match me up with the right one,” she said.

“Mom’s little incident,” that’s what Lee Carey’s family calls the experience that led to her life-saving care at Regions Hospital. “So many things about it were remarkable,” Lee said. “We think about the care we received every day.”

The night before Thanksgiving in 2018, Lee felt the worst pain she ever experienced. After the pain subsided, Lee and her husband, Terry, drove to urgent care at the HealthPartners Como Clinic in St. Paul. Katie Becker, a physician assistant, confirmed that Lee had not experienced a heart attack, but urged her to go directly to a hospital for further testing.

Given Lee’s symptoms, the staff of the Regions ER led her immediately to a patient room, where she was seen by a team led by Kurt Isenberger, MD. After a series of tests, Lee was diagnosed with an aortic dissection, a life-threatening tear of the large blood vessel branching off of the heart. “I was in the operating room 10 minutes later,” Lee said. “Dr. Isenberger’s team never settled until they found the problem.”

Lee underwent emergency open-heart surgery. Over the next few days her condition progressed relatively rapidly, and she went from what Dr. Isenberger describes as one of his sickest patients that year to a source of astonishment and joy among hospital staff. Lee’s recovery was not easy, but she was home within two weeks.

Two years after her “little incident,” Lee feels great. She’s lost 50 pounds and exercises regularly. Lee also visits Regions annually for checkups, getting emotional at these yearly milestones. This was certainly the case in November 2020, a few months after the birth of her first grandchild. “To spend this time as a parent and grandparent is beyond precious,” she said.

“I want to express my deepest thanks to Regions Hospital and all the staff members that helped me deal with my extreme depression and anxiety. Literally they saved my life.

“In mid-March I nearly took my life and viewed my friends and family as being better off without me. My son and a friend brought me to another local hospital, and I soon asked to be moved to Regions.

“The staff treated me with dignity and compassion, and assured me they were there to help. Each and every one of them showed concern for me and my sickness [and] would approach me and listen to me talk.

“Judy, a nurse on the mental health units, convinced me that I should attend DayBridge [a Regions outpatient program that offers intensive therapy] to continue my care. About the fourth day, during a class session on negative thinking, an instructor said some things that penetrated my sick brain. From that day on I engaged in the program and gleefully accepted all the help everyone gave me. I graduated from the program on April 24, and Regions helped arrange for continued counseling in a local clinic.”

Vic Cox, veterinarian and retired University of Minnesota professor, has had many reasons to visit Regions Hospital over the years – starting 40 years ago when he and his daughter, Barbara, were injured in a biking accident. “We were lying on the ground for minutes, dazed, when a Roseville police car came along,” Vic said. “The officer literally threw me into the back seat, put Barbara in the front seat, and zipped down to the emergency room at Regions.”

Since then, Vic has been rushed to the Emergency Center after experiencing serious cuts to his foot and hand, and an apparent reaction to a shingles vaccination. He was also taken to Regions after breaking his hip, later receiving a titanium replacement from surgeons at Regions.

And there was also the time Vic had acute back pain. “No one knew what the problem was,” he said. An MRI at Regions finally revealed a spinal disc infection. “Blood work showed that it was a Strep mutans infection, which can come from tooth brushing,” Vic said. “It was so unusual that staff wrote it up, and it was presented as a case report at a medical meeting.”

Vic appreciates Regions Hospital’s role in sharing its knowledge with the medical community and teaching future medical professionals. His donation to Regions Hospital Foundation to help expand the hospital’s Emergency Center was motivated by the hospital’s role as a knowledge leader along with the compassion and variety of care provided in the Emergency Center, as demonstrated by his own past.

On November 21, 2021, Paul Burgett, a firefighter-paramedic with the Eagan Fire Department, responded to a highway crash. Three vehicles had collided at the end of an icy bridge. With traffic fast approaching and sliding out of control towards the wreckage, Paul’s team acted quickly to bring passengers to safety.

In the chaos, Paul freed a woman trapped in her minivan, leading both her and her husband behind a guardrail – an act that saved both of their lives. However, in the process, Paul was struck by an oncoming SUV, receiving significant trauma to his leg.

In a state of shock as he entered the Regions ER, the first thing Paul remembered seeing was emergency physician Kurt Isenberger, MD. “My main concern was, will I get the proper treatment and get on the road to recovery right now?” Paul said. “When Dr. Isenberger came in, I knew I was on the right road.” Paul also appreciated how Dr. Isenberger took his feedback and that of other first responders into account while considering his choices.

After undergoing knee surgery led by HealthPartners orthopedic surgeon Mahad Hassan, MD, Paul continued to receive care at HealthPartners for his leg injury, finishing his physical therapy and returning to work in June 2022. His latest goal is to restart his five-mile-a-day running routine in summer 2023.

“My family is incredibly grateful for the care we received,” Paul said. “It got me back to my normal life.”