Vic Cox has had many reasons to visit Regions Hospital over the years. And the care he received inspired his major gift to help expand the hospital’s Emergency Center. “I’ve been well taken care of there. I always felt there was caring and compassion for everyone who was there, no matter their circumstances,” he said. “That’s important to me.”
It all started with a little bad luck and a lot of care
Vic’s first experience in the Emergency Center occurred about 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.”
Their care went smoothly until Vic’s wife Clara visited them. “As soon as she saw the stitches in her little girl’s head, she fainted, and her head hit a bedpost.” Clara stayed the night at the hospital with a possible concussion even as Vic and Barbara went home.
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. Surgeons implanted a titanium one. “Every time I go through TSA at the airport, the metal detectors go crazy,” he said.
Twice over the years, the hip came out of its socket, and in both cases Vic visited Regions Emergency Center.
One medical professional learning from another
Vic is a veterinarian and a retired professor at the University of Minnesota. As a medical professional, he takes an avid interest in his care. Take the treatment he received for 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.”
Improving care by sharing the knowledge
Vic appreciates Regions Hospital’s role in sharing its knowledge with the medical community and teaching future medical professionals, and he enjoyed using his own X-ray images in his lectures.
His donation to Regions Hospital Foundation 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. It’s also important to Vic that Regions serves a wide variety of people.
“It’s good to have a place like that, where people in need can be seen despite their limited ability to pay,” he said. “I’m glad there is a place like that for everybody.”
Consider donating to make a difference
If you’d like to join Vic in supporting Regions Hospital’s Emergency Center expansion, go to the Give Now page and choose that option from the Designation dropdown menu.
Or please select from the foundations listed below to make your gift. Thank you.