The 23-year-old point guard went down with just 80 seconds left of the first game of the Bulls’ Eastern Conference quarterfinals series against the Philadelphia 76ers.

Video courtesty of jmike619 on Youtube. Video may not play if Youtube user has removed it.

He’s not alone. Several NBA stars have experienced the same injury during this compressed season. But it’s not just NBA stars who are susceptible.

“There are two types of injuries – contact and non-contact,” said Brett Wolters, MD with the Orthopedic Group at Springfield Clinic and Memorial SportsCare. “A contact injury occurs when somebody’s hit from one direction to another. A non-contact injury typically occurs when someone extends their knee in an awkward position or lands funny.”

The ACL is one of four major ligaments in the knee. Injuries typically occur during sports that involve rotational movement like basketball and soccer or contact sports like football. But that doesn’t mean it can’t also happen falling in the parking lot or slipping in the shower. Chances are you’ll know if you’ve injured your ACL.

• Signs of an ACL Injury include:
• a loud “pop” sound
• moderate to intense pain
• continued knee swelling

Recovery can typically be anywhere from two to 12 months depending on the severity of the injury.

“Women are more likely to suffer non-contact injuries because they have a strength imbalance,” Dr. Wolters said. “Muscles at the front of the thigh are stronger than those in the back. So women may land in a position that increases stress on the ACL.”

Contact injuries can’t be prevented. However, Dr. Wolters recommends several measures for preventing and rehabilitating from non-contact injuries. Sports enhancement training, fitness programs and ACL Bridge programs are among those options to name a few.

• These SportsCare programs can:
• help increase your strength as well as improve balance
• provide you with proper training techniques like jumping and landing safely
• educate you on the best equipment for your sport like a good pair of running shoes

If you’re an athlete or have kids who are, talk to your primary care physician about ACL injury prevention. If necessary, your family doctor can refer you to an orthopedic surgeon for an evaluation.

Hearing loss goes unnoticed because it often occurs so gradually and is painless. But it can hamper your quality of life.

“A lot of times family members will notice it first,” said Vicki Blount, certified clinical audiologist at Memorial Medical Center’s Hearing Center.

• Some of the telltale signs are:
• Asking people to repeat themselves
• Turning the volume up on the television
• Struggling to hear in noisy environments, such as restaurants
• Thinking others are mumbling or sound muffled
• Hearing a ringing in your ears

If a friend or loved one is experiencing these symptoms, it would be a good idea to encourage them to schedule a hearing screening. “If the person has a hearing loss, we recommend retesting every two to three years or sooner if a change is noticed,” Blount said.

People are often reluctant to come in for a hearing test because they’re afraid they’ll be told they need hearing aids. “There’s still a stigma associated with wearing hearing aids,” Blount said. “Most people will be surprised at how much hearing aids have changed.”

Hearing loss can occur at any age but is the third leading ailment among people who are older than 65. More teenagers and children are suffering from hearing loss caused by listening to music.

“Since mp3 players can hold thousands of songs and play for hours without recharging, younger people are listening for longer periods of time,” Blount said. “That’s when hearing damage starts to occur.”

Need to set up a hearing screening? To make an appointment with Memorial’s Hearing Center, 644 N. Second St., Springfield, call (217) 788-3767 between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. weekdays.

Because of its simplicity, walking has the lowest drop-out rate of those who adopt the activity. Research shows that walking for at least 30 minutes a day can provide the following health benefits:

• Reduced risk of coronary heart disease
• Improved blood pressure and blood sugar levels
• Lowered risk for stroke
• Reduced risk of Type 2 diabetes
• And much more!

On May 5, nearly 80 Memorial Medical Center employees and their friends and families celebrated walking’s role in heart health at the annual Springfield Heart Walk at Southwind Park, which raised nearly $60,000 for the AHA in its work to prevent, treat and defeat heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases.

Memorial Heart & Vascular Services is proud to have been the premier sponsor of this year’s Heart Walk as part of Memorial’s mission to improve the health of the people and communities we serve.

For more information on the benefits of walking, visit the AHA’s Start Walking Now website, which includes links to local walking maps and more.

WATCH OUT FOR OUTDOOR ELEMENTS

Bugs

As temperatures rise, bugs come out. Your best protection is bug spray that’s at least 10- to 30-percent DEET. The higher the percentage, the longer the repellant lasts. This can be mixed with sunscreen and is safe on children as young as 2 months old.

Poison Ivy/Poison Oak

Rashes from poison ivy and oak are caused by a substance in the sap of the plants. Learn to recognize the plants so you can avoid them. If you come into contact, immediately wash with soap and water.

Heat

The risk of heat illness goes up during exertion and with certain health conditions such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Heat exhaustion symptoms include thirst, fatigue and cramps in the legs or abdomen. Left untreated, heat exhaustion can progress to heat stroke, a medical emergency. Your best protection is to drink fluids regularly and wear loose-fitting clothes.

KEEP YOUR FAMILY PROTECTED

On the Playground

Faulty equipment, improper surfaces and careless behavior pose risks. The playground surface should be soft enough to cushion a fall, and the equipment needs to be a good distance away from fences. Check metal surfaces to make sure they aren’t too hot, look for sharp objects and stay away from ropes that could get wrapped around your child.

On the Water

Utilize the buddy system when swimming, and be sure small children wear life jackets at all times.

On a Picnic

Warmer months mean more family cookouts and picnics but also an increase in foodborne illness due to improper food handling techniques. Keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold. Wash all fruits and vegetables. Keep cooked food separate from raw food, cook food thoroughly and refrigerate promptly, and be sure your hands are always clean.

To learn more about these safety tips and receive more information on how to keep children healthy and safe while enjoying summertime activities, join Ashish John, MD, and Teena John, MD, pediatricians with Koke Mill Medical Associates, for an hour-long Memorial Event, “Fun in the Sun,” beginning at 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 23, in the Wedeberg Conference Center at Memorial Medical Center. To register, visit MemorialMedical.com or call Memorial’s Healthline at (217) 788-3333.

Gluten is found in wheat, barley and rye.

Gluten-Free. You’ve heard the term. You’re likely seeing it more and more in grocery store aisles on pasta boxes and other packaged items. But what does it mean? And could you benefit from a gluten-free diet?

Gluten-free eating is associated with celiac disease, a condition that damages the lining of the small intestine and prevents it from absorbing parts of food. This damage is caused by a reaction from eating foods with gluten, which is found in wheat, barley and rye.

“Your intestinal lining helps absorb nutrients like iron, folate and vitamin B12,” said Gayle Jennings, MS, RD, LDN, a dietitian with Memorial Medical Center. “People with celiac disease can’t absorb these nutrients. And it leads to fatigue, weakness and anemia.”

The condition may be more common than you think. According to The Celiac Disease Center at the University of Chicago, 1 in every 133 people could have celiac disease. Even more startling is that it could take up to 11 years before you’re diagnosed. 

“People with an autoimmune disorder or those who have a close relative with the disease are more likely to have the condition,” Jennings said.

The exact cause of celiac disease is unknown. It can develop at any point in your life and surface in several ways.

The damage on your intestinal lining can trigger gastrointestinal symptoms. And because your body is not getting important nutrients, you’ll likely experience an overall sluggish feeling.

• COMMON SYMPTOMS OF CELIAC DISEASE
• Diarrhea
• Constipation
• Bloating
• Vomiting
• Itchy skin or a rash
• Weight loss

If the symptoms start adding up, you need to have a celiac disease screening, which is a simple blood test.

“For it to be accurate, you must be eating foods with gluten so it can get a proper measure,” Jennings said. “The only treatment for the condition is a gluten-free diet. So a screening is the first step in making an accurate diagnosis and knowing whether you should eat gluten-free.”

To get a complimentary screening, hear from local experts on celiac disease and taste gluten-free foods, register for the free seminar, “Is Gluten-Free for Me? Understanding Celiac Disease” brought you to by Friends of Memorial.

The free event is at 5:30 p.m. Monday, May 21, in the Wedeberg Conference Center at Memorial Medical Center. Participants will learn about gluten-free diets, how to read food labels, and how to avoid complications in their diets. Dublin Pub, Mama’s Bakery and Gluten Free at Last will provide gluten-free foods to sample.

Regsiter online or call Memorial’s Healthline at (217) 788-3333.

In recognition of National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week, May 6-12, it is important for parents to know that psychiatric and learning disorders in children and adolescents are real, common and treatable.

 “At The Children’s Center, we encourage parents and guardians to bring their child in for an assessment at the first sign of a significant change in behavior,” said Dr. Cynthia Mester, director of The Children’s Center, part of the Mental Health Centers of Central Illinois. “Research shows the sooner mental health professionals become involved when there is a behavioral issue, the greater the potential for resolution and/or for diminishing the overall impact.” 

Mester said changes in the following can be cues that something is going on in a child or adolescent’s life:

• Mood
• Degree of irritability
• Sleep or appetite patterns
• Level of activity

“When evaluating a change in behavior, it is important to consider typical behavior for the child and whether the change in behavior is significantly interfering with the child’s functioning in a negative way,” Mester said. “To help evaluate the impact on a child’s functioning, parents and teachers should think about the onset, frequency, intensity and duration of the change in behavior.”   

Parents should not wait to contact a mental health professional if they are worried about their child. In order for children to succeed in school, at home and in life, they need to receive treatment.

“Stigma, lack of awareness, and misinformation all negatively affect a child’s prognosis,” Mester said.  “The staff at The Children’s Center is committed to eradicating these negative influences by educating the families we serve and providing quality, evidence-based mental healthcare.”

This week, Nursing Team Week, we salute our Nursing Team throughout our health system. The story below, originally published in 2009 in Memorial’s employee newsletter, is one example of how our team works together to help create great patient experiences along the entire continuum of care, including in the waning moments of life.

Doris Burke was ready to go home.

It was summertime in 2009. In and out of nursing homes and hospitals for seven straight months, the octogenarian from Chatham missed her flower garden and was tired of the restricted lifestyle she had acquired from problems related to heart failure.

In June, Doris confided to Maria Fischer, a now-retired registered nurse for Memorial Medical Center and healthcare assistant to Mark Hansen, MD, Memorial Physician Services, that she wasn’t sure how much longer she wanted to live in her current state. Following a heart valve replacement surgery at a medical facility in another state in January 2009, Doris had woken up on a ventilator and later learned she would never be able to live without it.

“She said that things hadn’t turned out the way she had wanted them to,” Fischer said. “She hadn’t been back home in months, and she really just didn’t know how long she wanted to do this. We talked to her pulmonary doctor, Jon Mann, MD, and he kind of talked to Doris and her family and said, ‘This is the way life is going to be. She is never going to get off the ventilator.’”

A month later, in late July, Fischer encountered Doris again when she was re-admitted to MMC for heart failure.

“I met her in the ER and her first words to me were, ‘I’m done,’” Fischer said.

Fischer asked Doris, a married mother to three grown children — including longtime MMC engineering electrician Mark Burke — what she wanted to do, and Doris’ request was clear: She wanted off the ventilator, and to go home to see the flowers blooming in her garden before she passed.

Granting Doris’ wish wouldn’t be easy. It was very likely she wouldn’t make the trip home without some respiratory assistance, so Fischer and a team of caregivers — including those on MMC’s 2E-Medical nursing unit, Respiratory Therapy, EMS Transport and Memorial Home Services Hospice — had to come up with a solution that would get her home without a ventilator assisting her.

Within three days, the group came up with a plan that everyone – especially Doris and her family – was happy with.

“She was jubilant,” Fischer said. “She was so excited about going home. That’s all her children wanted – they wanted to see her go home.”

Fischer last saw Doris when she left the hospital via ambulance with the assistance of a transport team that included Emergency Department registered nurse Carla Richards and respiratory therapist Doug Wuellner, who helped Doris breathe the whole way home with a squeeze bag.

Helping both Doris and her family transition home was Lora Wyatt, an admissions nurse with Memorial Home Services’ Hospice.

“We took her onto her porch, where she could see her garden,” Wyatt said. “Some of her family members picked flowers for her so she could see them up close.”

After Doris had seen her garden, Wuellner removed the bagging device and set her up on oxygen, and Wyatt stayed for a few hours to make sure Doris was as comfortable as possible while she visited with family. She died several hours later.

“I’ve never experienced anything like that,” Wyatt said. “It was just like a death should be. She lived until the very last minute. … It was very moving.”

Mark Burke, who was with his mother along with his two sisters, Sarah Cantrall and Virginia Cook, said Doris was very happy to be home surrounded by family and was able to say goodbye to everyone without feeling too much pain.

“She just felt real good. It was about as nice as anyone could want,” said Burke, who has worked at Memorial for 35 years and remarked that he is honored to be part of an organization full of employees who are driven to “do the right thing for the patients and for each other.”

Fischer, who received the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nursing in December 2009 in part because of her role in Doris’ care, agreed.

“This was just a phenomenal example of how you can make a great patient experience by working together,” she said. “By Hospice working on what they did, the transport team doing more than they’ve ever done, the case manager – this was not one individual person but an effort by everyone to make Doris’ wish come true.”

Speech therapy isn’t just about assisting with a child’s articulation. It can involve verbal and nonverbal communication skills, interacting and dialoging with others, and more. What’s key is that these skills be addressed early.

“Early intervention with these kids makes the most dramatic impact,” said Jennifer Pollock, CCC-SLP, CLC, a speech-language pathologist and certified lactation counselor with Memorial Outpatient Rehab Services. “Identifying and diagnosing these children at an early age is beneficial for them to attain therapy.”

What is a speech therapist?

Speech therapists do not diagnose a child — diagnosis typically occurs with a developmental pediatrician or developmental child psychiatrist — but they are well-equipped to help address the communication symptoms often tied to autism, such as difficulty at producing language (vocabulary and grammar problems), expressing or interpreting nonverbal communication and understanding the two-way flow of the communication process.

“A lot of people don’t realize that speech therapy is such a vast, wide area that looks at the language, what the kids are understanding, how they are processing what others are saying, and more,” she said.

What issues does speech therapy help?

Common issues that speech-language pathologists (SLPs) see in children with autism or autism-like symptoms include:

• A child who is too overwhelmed, or at times underwhelmed, by their sensory system that they cannot interact and communicate with people appropriately.
• A child who has difficulty processing parts of a sentence, such as “not” sentences. These children may not hear or understand the negative — such as in the sentence, “We are not going to the park today.” — and focus only on the noun and incorrectly set an expectation that won’t happen, which leads to behavioral or temper problems. “Parents, grandparents or teachers may tend to look at these kids throwing a fit, but it’s just that they truly don’t understand,” Pollock said.
• A child who has a hard time with pragmatic language skills, or understanding how the communication process works. They may not be able to read another person’s facial expressions to determine if they are happy, angry or sad; have difficulty taking turns; or monopolize conversations.
• A child who exhibits delayed or immediate echolalia, meaning he “parrots” back to you something he’s heard elsewhere, such as in a movie or TV show, or immediately repeats back something you say because he is unable to appropriately form his own thoughts. Oftentimes these responses are not appropriate for the situation and occur over and over again.
• A child who has difficulty processing questions unless it’s about something very concrete. Situational or hypothetical questions — such as, “Where would you go to eat a hamburger?” — are hard to answer because the child can’t switch his focus to think about something currently outside his realm.

How does speech therapy teach communication skills?

In many of these instances, role-playing with the therapist and within social groups with other children of similar abilities works well in helping the child understand how to better communicate with others. But Pollock noted that the skills a child learns in therapy (which also can include occupational therapy, physical therapy and feeding therapy, if warranted) need to be developed in all areas of a child’s life with the help of their support system.

“We really need everyone involved in the child’s life so we can generalize therapy into other situations and translate what they are doing in therapy to real life,” Pollock said. “We have to lay a whole lot of groundwork to help them be more functional in their day-to-day activities, but with family support, with the school’s support and with therapy support, all of these things can work together to help make a child the best they can be.

 “We are almost always able to make progress.  Sometimes it’s slow, sometimes it’s frustrating, but it does happen.”

Do you think your child could benefit from speech therapy or other services at Memorial’s Kids at Koke Mill outpatient rehab program for children? Your first step is a referral from your primary care physician. Your insurance company also may need to determine if speech therapy services are covered.

Bicycling is a great outdoor sport that builds muscle tone and strength and provides a solid cardiovascular workout. To maximize each cycling adventure and protect your safety, however, you should be sure your bike is in proper working order and you have the right gear on hand for a safe ride.

Liz Vermeersch, office assistant for Memorial SportsCare and an avid cycler for more than 20 years, shares some safety tips in the video below.

Learn more about bicycling this Saturday, May 5, during “Cycling 101,” part of a part of a four-part “Be Fit for Spring” series, beginning at 9 a.m. in the Multipurpose Room at the Gus and Flora Kerasotes YMCA/Memorial SportsCare building at 4450 W. Iles Ave. Bring in your bike for a professional diagnostic evaluation. For additional information on this free event, visit the SportsCare website.

You hear the phrase so much that eventually it becomes stale — much like the broccoli you keep leaving on the plate. But good nutrition doesn’t have to be boring. Spice things up this season by adding color, flavor and texture to your plate.

“Adults need to aim for two cups of fruit and two to three cups of vegetables a day,” says Janelle Cornell, RD, LDN, a dietitian with Taylorville Memorial Hospital. “Now instead of the food pyramid, focus on the plate itself. Fruits and veggies should be half of your plate.”

Mix up your fruits and veggies this season with these five tips from Cornell.

1. Add more veggies to pizza. Try broccoli, spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms, zucchini, grated carrots or avocado. Add some fruit. Be creative and try something different.
2. Grate, shred or chop your vegetables for your casseroles. Zucchini, spinach, carrots, mushrooms, onions, peppers, tomatoes, cabbage and sweet potatoes all work well. If you really want to hide them from your family, puree first then add.
3. Top pancakes, waffles and French toast with fruit. Try applesauce, cherries, blueberries, apples or peaches. Even using canned pie fillings would contain less sugar than syrup.
4. Add vegetables and fruit to sandwiches. Think outside the box –try mushrooms, sliced pineapple, sliced apples, raisins, salsa, cabbage, sauerkraut or avocado.
5. Stack your baked potato with healthy toppings like broccoli, mushrooms, onions, grated carrots, peppers, corn or peas. Use salsa instead of butter and sour cream. Think of it like a salad on a potato, minus the lettuce. For a different flavor, try a low-fat ranch dressing.

“Buy seasonal produce,” Cornell said. “It’s less expensive when it’s in season, and you just can’t beat the taste. But frozen and canned veggies and fruits also work. These foods are low in calories, high in fiber, low in carbs and so versatile. And you can’t beat the nutrition.”

Need a little more nutritional guidance? Call 824-1840 to schedule an appointment with a Taylorville Memorial dietician.

Do you get the recommended amount of fruits and veggies? If so, how do you do it? Talk to us in our comments section below.