Ruth Kvistad, an EMT with Alton Memorial Hospital’s EMS team since November 2020, has even loftier goals. She graduated cum laude from the University of Missouri–St. Louis  last year with a BA in philosophy and has also completed premed studies. Ruth has been accepted into the MD/JD (Juris Doctor) program at Southern Illinois University. But her admiration for EMTs is firm thanks to an unforgettable experience as a young girl.

Medicine hardly seemed like a calling for Brian Fogarty when he was finishing high school in 2011. But the Alton Memorial Hospital paramedic has learned things about himself he never imagined and is now on the way to medical school.

Colon cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States. The lifetime risk of developing colon cancer is as much as 4.3 percent in the general population and higher if you have a family history of the disease. Colon cancer can be curable if detected early, as pre-cancerous lesions can be removed during a colonoscopy. David Henkhaus of Alton is one who knows about this, from both a positive and negative point of view.

Beth Rull saw some positives in COVID-19, which is quite remarkable considering that the past year has been the most challenging health year of her life – and very little of it had to do with the pandemic. She went through a double mastectomy and followed up with radiation oncology treatment at Alton Memorial Hospital -- and was very pleased with the care she received.

A machine in the Alton Memorial Hospital café stands ready to help satisfy the hunger of employees, physicians and visitors during the hours when the café’s serving line is not open. The Byte machine holds a limited amount of items but can be accessed by the use of a credit card.