Teamwork and hope: The formula that saved a life at AdventHealth Clermont ER 

CLERMONT, Fla. - As soon as David Schaefer walked through the doors of the AdventHealth Clermont ER, he was overcome with emotions. As memories of a life-changing experience flooded back into his mind, he could not hold back tears of joy and gratitude for the team who saved his life in that very same ER last October.

“If it wasn’t for all of you and your quick thinking, I would be dead,” Schafer said.

What seemed to be a regular morning of shopping with his wife turned into an urgent drive to the emergency room following sudden sharp abdominal pain. Schaefer had recently undergone an Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) procedure, a surgery designed to reinforce weakened areas of the abdominal aorta that, if left untreated, could rupture and disrupt blood flow to vital organs.

“In situations like this, they always come together as a team… it’s like an orchestra.” - Kandy Medlen, chief nursing officer at AdventHealth Minneola

However, just a few months after the procedure, he was forced to seek emergency medical care once again. This time, doctors discovered that the aneurysm was leaking.

The Clermont ER staff wasted no time in getting to work. Despite the severity of the situation, they worked swiftly and efficiently to treat and stabilize him to fly him out via helicopter to AdventHealth Orlando.

“Everyone knew their place and it was like God was with us all during those 43 minutes he was here,” said Christine Gouthro, senior nurse manager at AdventHealth Clermont ER. After six days in the hospital, Schaefer was released, overjoying his family and the Clermont ER team.

When reflecting on the experience, his wife, Kim Schaefer, said she felt confident taking her husband to AdventHealth.

“We’ve always liked the place. It’s clean and the people are very kind,” she said. “We were so happy to have him back. We were surprised with how genuinely caring the hospital staff were! You just had to be there to really feel it.”

Schaefer felt so touched by the Clermont ER team’s efforts that he sent them a handwritten letter and even came back to visit.

“I am forever in your debt and am supremely thankful for all the professionalism, determination, wisdom and compassion you exhibited that morning,” Shaefer wrote in the letter.

"It's a big deal in the ER," said assistant nurse manager Rudy Wineberger, one of the team members who cared for Schaefer. "We see patients during some of their most critical moments, but after that, we usually don't see them again."

Shelly King, another nurse who was part of the care team that day, shared how much Schaefer's kind gesture meant.

"It's one of those things that puts a little spark back into why we do what we do."